OCUP - Ocuphire defended at Cantor despite trial setback
- Ocuphire Pharma ( NASDAQ: OCUP ) reached a one-month low Thursday even as Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed its Overweight rating and a 12-month price target of $24 despite a setback for the company’s eye disease therapy APX3330 in a Phase 2 trial.
- Announcing topline data Wednesday, Ocuphire ( OCUP ) said that the ZETA-1 Phase 2 trial for the oral drug candidate did not meet the primary endpoint in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR).
- However, Cantor analyst Kristen Kluska argues that APX3330 continued to indicate a favorable safety profile, ZETA-1 met the key pre-specified secondary endpoint, and the company intends to meet the FDA in H2 2023 for an End-of-Phase 2 meeting.
- “….we strongly believe that an oral therapy would have a clear place in the market if approved, but at this time we believe further clarity is required,” the analyst wrote, arguing that Ocuphire ( OCUP ) “remains highly undervalued” based on its lead asset Nyxol alone.
- Kluska also points to near-term milestones and royalties from FamyGen Life Sciences, which agreed to jointly develop and commercialize Nyxol across three indications in 2022.
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Ocuphire defended at Cantor despite trial setback