Analyst: Kite Pharma's CAR-T Patient Death, Stock Selloff Is A Buying Opportunity

For a biopharmaceutical company, there may be no worse news than the death of a patient receiving treatment during clinical testing.

On Monday, shares of Kite Pharma Inc KITE plummeted more than 12 percent after the company disclosed that a patient with brain cancer died following treatment with Kite’s CAR-T therapy KTE-C19.

Particularly concerning for Kite investors is that the patient experience brain swelling, the same side-effect that derailed a similar treatment being tested by rival Juno Therapeutics Inc JUNO.

Despite the horrible headline, Cowen analysts urged investors not to read too much into the death.

“While any death is unfortunate, this patient was very sick and was clearly going to die soon anyway,” the firm wrote.

According to Cowen analyst Eric Schmidt, the death is a non-event and the selloff is a buying opportunity for investors. Cowen pointed out that only 1 in 300 KTE-C19 patients has had cerebral edema and there is only a 2 percent death rate associated with the treatment.

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“Relative to the efficacy benefit provided, those are very acceptable numbers. So this won’t impact the drug’s opportunity at all,” Cowen said.

The firm notes Kite is still expected to be first to market with a treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma later this year, which should be a billion-dollar opportunity for the company.

In addition, Cowen doesn’t see competition from Novartis AG (ADR) NVS as an issue for Kite due to its higher failure rate and lengthy manufacturing process.

Despite the Monday selloff to the $69 level, Kite shares remain more than 55 percent  higher so far in 2017.