Poseida Therapeutics Ushers New Era For Gene Therapies, Analyst Initiating Coverage Says

HC Wainwright has initiated coverage on Poseida Therapeutics Inc PSTX with a Buy rating and a price target of $15.
Poseida is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing cell and gene therapies based on its proprietary platforms, including piggyBac, Cas-CLOVER, and nanoparticle technologies.
The analyst writes that Poseida’s piggyBac and Cas-CLOVER technologies could potentially address the issues with current autologous CART therapies, such as severe toxicities, limited efficacy in solid tumors, and high manufacturing cost.
HC Wainwright also writes that current mainstream adeno-associated virus (AAV)- based in vivo gene therapy has multiple shortcomings. Hence combining piggyBac and nanoparticles could potentially deliver a virus-free, safe, and durable in vivo gene therapy and expand indications and patient populations.
Although Poseida’s in vivo gene therapy pipeline is still preclinical, the analyst says the promising data from P-OTC-101 and P-FVIII-101 programs provide proof of concept that an in vivo gene therapy based on piggyBac and nanoparticle platforms could deliver durable efficacy, even in a juvenile patient population.
The company’s wholly-owned P-OTC-101 program is expected to enter human trials in early 2024.
Price Action: PSTX shares are up 15.4% at $6.68 on the last check Wednesday.