EFTR - eFFECTOR soars as Stifel upgrades after Phase 2 data for cancer drug combo

2023-05-26 09:01:30 ET

eFFECTOR Therapeutics ( NASDAQ: EFTR ) jumped ~117% in the pre-market Friday after Stifel upgraded the nano-cap biotech citing interim Phase 2 data for the company's investigational therapy zotatifin as part of a drug combination in patients with breast cancer.

Per a May 3 data cut, the open-label trial for zotatifin and FDA-approved cancer therapies fulvestrant and abemaciclib (ZFA triplet) led to a 26% partial response among 19 heavily pretreated patients with ER+ metastatic breast cancer ((mBC)).

The patients had undergone a median of four prior lines of therapy previously, and as part of the study, they received the ZFA triplet on Days 1 and 8 of a 21-day cycle. As of the data cutoff date, four remained on the trial, and three patients discontinued the trial due to adverse events.

There was one partial response in another group of three patients who received zotatifin and fulvestrant (ZF doublet). According to the investigators, the cohort indicated no dose-limiting toxicities or serious adverse events.

The data, disclosed ahead of a presentation at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, prompted Stifel to upgrade eFFECTOR to Buy from Hold.

"At the stock's current valuation, we think zota alone can drive share outperformance, and thus recommend owning into future zota readouts later this year," the analyst Benjamin Burnett wrote, raising the price target to $7.00 from $1.30 per share.

Burnett notes that the percentage of mid-20 overall response rate for the ZFA triplet confirmed the mid-to-high 20's ORR rate seen in an early data release based on only seven patients.

"However, we believe today's update (n=19 efficacy evaluable) corroborates those early signals and increases our conviction in zota and the breast cancer program," the analyst wrote.

More on eFFECTOR

• eFFECTOR Therapeutics down 22% despite positive interim results in solid tumors trial
• eFFECTOR: Developing New Class Of Cancer Therapies

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