ADAP - ADAP: Initiating Coverage of Adaptimmune a Leading T-Cell Therapy Company | Benzinga
By Michael Kim
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We are initiating coverage of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: ADAP) with a 12-month price target of $3.00, translating into sizeable upside from the stock's current price. Adaptimmune designs, develops, manufactures, and delivers innovative cell therapies via the company's unique T-cell receptor (TCR) platform to treat cancers across multiple solid tumor types.
Our investment thesis revolves around:
1. Unique T-cell therapy: Adaptimmune's mission is to transform cancer treatment by engineering naturally-occurring TCRs to better recognize and bind to specific cancer biomarkers and activate the immune system to target and eradicate cancer cells. Over the last 15+ years, the company has developed a proprietary technology platform that identifies cancer targets and genetically engineers a patient's TCRs to enhance efficacy, while avoiding healthy cells. Adaptimmune's cell therapies can be engineered from a patient's own T-cells (autologous) or manufactured from stem cells (allogeneic).
Adaptimmune's engineered T-cell therapy addresses solid tumor cancers. The first engineered T-cell products from Adaptimmune, afami-cel and lete-cel, will target soft tissue sarcomas (STSs), specifically synovial sarcoma and myxoid/round cell liposarcoma (MRCLS). Approximately 13,000 soft tissue sarcomas are diagnosed each year in the U.S., of which synovial sarcoma and MRCLS account for an estimated 1,000+ cases. Both cancers are characterized by lower survival rates and limited treatment options, and mostly impact younger people and middle-aged adults.
2. Commercialization inflection point: The pending launch of afami-cel (assuming FDA approval) marks the transition of Adaptimmune from a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company to a commercial-stage cell therapy company. From the start, Adaptimmune has been constructed as an integrated company, with the vision of developing and ...