Morphosys Ag (NASDAQ:MOR) stock fell 2.98% (As on June 20, 1:23:00 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company got double upgraded by JP Morgan to Overweight from Underweight with a price target of $10, up from $3.30. The Pelabresib BET inhibitor MANIFEST-2 Phase III study will report late in 2023, with “success de-risking a blockbuster asset” and offering 200% upside potential in the shares, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The analyst cited upcoming data from a Phase 3 clinical study for its drug pelabresib in the treatment of myelofibrosis, a type of bone marrow cancer. The investment bank said that positive results would de-risk a “blockbuster asset” that it believes could have peak sales of EUR 1.5B. Results from the Phase 3 trial are expected in late 2023.
“Though there is also some risk of secondary endpoint failure, which would be a significant disappointment, we see the study as being more likely to succeed than fail, and with even a 50/50 blended scenario offering 40% upside,” the analysts wrote in their noted dated June 16.
It noted that MorphoSys was expected to hold an investor event on June 21 to discuss the product and its potential market in greater detail, which should “increase appreciation for the asset.”
Further, the company and Incyte announced final five-year follow-up data from the Phase 2 L-MIND study showing that Monjuvi (tafasitamab-cxix) plus lenalidomide followed by Monjuvi monotherapy provided prolonged, durable responses in adult patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL. These data were featured as a late-breaking oral presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023. The company had announced that enrollment of the Phase 3 frontMIND study is also complete, with more than 880 patients enrolled in the trial. frontMIND is a global, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial exploring tafasitamab, marketed in the U.S. as Monjuvi and outside the U.S. by Incyte as Minjuvi, plus lenalidomide in addition to R-CHOP versus R-CHOP alone as a first-line treatment for high-intermediate and high-risk patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The topline data from this study are expected in the second half of 2025.
Meanwhile, the company had announced that it will stop work and operations on its pre-clinical research programs to optimize its cost structure. MorphoSys reduced its workforce at the company’s headquarters in Planegg, Germany, by approximately 17%. This action, along with other steps taken over the past year, enables MorphoSys to focus resources on its mid- to late-stage oncology pipeline.