With Alnylam Pharma Down More Than 15%, Analyst Says Buy The Dip

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY continued to decline after Pfizer Inc. PFE reported its transthyretin stabilizer Vyndaqel met primary Phase 3 endpoints Thursday.

However, B Riley FBR considers the ostensible competitor’s victory a positive for Alnylam.

The Rating

Analyst Madhu Kumar maintained a Buy rating on Alnylam with a $200 price target.

The Thesis

Based on absolute clinical data, Alnylam’s transthyretin RNAi pipeline is expected to dominate the TTR amyloidosis space over the next few years, Kumar said in a note.

Pfizer’s success in TTR cardiomyopathy is seen to further derisk Alnylam’s franchise, including its ALN-TTRsc02 asset, which is set to start Phase 3 studies in 2018.

At the same time, Alnylam’s product addresses a different patient set than Vyndaqel does, which means Pfizer’s success does not weigh on Kumar’s bullish Alnylam model, the analyst said. And even where there may be overlap, the analyst said he anticipates victory for Alnylam. 

“We believe anything TTR stabilizers can do, RNAi can do better." 

That advantage is seen in both effectiveness and dosing schedules.

“Taken as a whole, we believe that Alnylam's TTR RNAi franchise could have better efficacy through superior adherence along with increased convenience through reduced treatment burden,” Kumar said. 

B Riley FBR considers Alnylam’s selloff a buying opportunity and ranks the stock as an alpha generator.

Price Action

At the time of publication, shares were trading down 15.73 percent at $100.36. 

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