JNJ - B.Riley downgrades Arcturus on 'broken narrative' for its ARCT-021 COVID-19 vaccine candidate

B.Riley Securities downgrades Arcturus Therapeutics ([[ARCT]] +14.4%) to Neutral from Buy, owing to the company's ARCT-021 Phase I/II interim data coming up short against the recently published early-stage data from Johnson & Johnson ([[JNJ]] +1.1%) for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S.Analyst Mayank Mamtani also cut the stock's 12-month price target to $77 from $138.Mamtani says that ARCT-021 phase I/II interim data was "inarguably disappointing" and added that he sees a "broken narrative" for the vaccine candidates' differentiation particularly in light of peers' "late-stage datasets continuing to raise the bar on the COVID-19 vaccine value proposition."Following review of data from the Phase 1/2 study, the FDA this month allowed Arcturus' Investigational New Drug ((IND)) application for the Phase 2 clinical study of its vaccine candidate ARCT-021.

For further details see:

B.Riley downgrades Arcturus on 'broken narrative' for its ARCT-021 COVID-19 vaccine candidate