GRTS - Gritstone bio draws Buy rating at B. Riley on mRNA potential

2023-03-28 13:41:06 ET

Vaccine-developer Gritstone bio ( NASDAQ: GRTS ) trended higher on Tuesday after B. Riley launched its coverage with a Buy rating and a 12-month target of $8 per share, noting its prospects in messenger RNA technology.

The analyst Mayank Mamtani argues that Gritstone ( GRTS ) stands out with its two-pronged approach amid the innovation trend taking place in the mRNA-based personal cancer vaccine space (PCV) led by the likes of Moderna ( MRNA )/Merck ( MRK ) and BioNTech ( BNTX ).

In December, Moderna ( MRNA ) posted mid-stage clinical data for a combination involving its mRNA-based vaccine mRNA-4157/V940 and Merck's ( MRK ) blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda as an adjuvant treatment for certain patients with melanoma.

Mamtani opines that Gritstone ( GRTS ) has already disclosed "de-risking" Phase 1 results for its lead programs GRANITE and SLATE "notably in difficult-to-treat, late-line immunologically "cold" tumors," such as colorectal cancer and lung cancer.

He argues the firm even has the potential "to leapfrog the R&D strategy of more advanced" mRNA-based players in PCV space such as Merck ( MRK ) and Moderna ( MRNA ), which according to the analyst, have initially targeted "hot" tumors in earlier settings.

Read: Seeking Alpha contributor Edmund Ingham with a Buy rating on GRTS, argues that Phase 2/3 data expected from the company's GRANITE program "could be good enough to secure accelerated approval."

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