Reasons To Stay Bullish On Alnylam In The New Year

At its R&D Day in New York City on December 16, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY discussed its clinical pipeline of RNAi drugs, including the phase III APOLLO trial of patisiran for transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP).

Chardan Capital’s Madhu Kumar maintains a Buy rating on the company, while lowering the price target from $89 to $69.

Bullish Stance

Expressing a bullish stance on Alnylam Pharma ahead of the data from the APOLLO trial in 2017, Kumar mentioned that the “opt-in to co-develop and co-commercialize fitusiran” in partnership with Sanofi SA (ADR) SNY is a positive for Alnylam Pharma.

At its R&D Day, the company provided further details regarding the recently discontinued revusiran program for TTR familial amyloid cardiomyopathy (TTR-FAC).

Uncertainties

However, the analyst believes there are still meaningful uncertainties regarding the future of the company’s TTR-FAC therapeutic strategy.

Alnylam Pharma presented the Phase I and Phase II data for ALN-CC5 in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) on December 5 at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition.

Kumar, however, believes the PNH landscape has “fundamentally changed with LDH normalization serving as the new standard for competitiveness.”

The market share estimate for ALN-CC5 has therefore been lowered from peak share of 15.4 percent to 5.4 percent.

At Last Check

• Shares of Alnylam were flat on the day up a penny at $44.40.
• Shares of Sanofi were up 1.25 percent at $39.02.