Wells Fargo Upgrades Fate Therapeutics On Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Outlook

Update from the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) suggested that initial data for Fate Therapeutics Inc’s FATE FT500 and FT516 therapies were well received by both clinicians and investors, according to Wells Fargo.

The Analyst

Wells Fargo’s Jim Birchenough upgraded Fate Therapeutics from Equal-Weight to Overweight, while raising the price target from $16 to $24.

The Thesis

Fate Therapeutics reviewed progress with its induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived natural killer (NK) cell therapeutics pipeline at the ASH meeting, which suggests upside potential in 2020, Birchenough said in the note.

Phase 1 data of FT500 indicates that repeat dosing is safe and “incites neither a host anti-FT500 T-cell nor a B-cell response,” the analyst mentioned.

He added that “very early clinical data for FT516 as a monotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia or with RITUXAN in non-Hodgkin lymphoma are encouraging suggesting that iPSC-NK are functional.”

Moreover, FT596 is scheduled to begin clinical studies in early 2020, while FT819 can be manufactured at good manufacturing practice (GMP) scale and shows improved pre-clinical activity against a conventional CAR-T.

Birchenough highlighted that Fate Therapeutics had dosed all the iPSC NK products in the outpatient setting without incident.

Price Action

Shares of Fate Therapeutics had spiked almost 41% to $19.27 at the time of publishing on Monday.