Good And Bad News from Epizyme; Wedbush Analyst Weighs In

Wedbush analyst David Nierengarten reiterated his Outperform rating on Epizyme Inc EPZM after the company announced that the FDA has granted fast track designation for tazemetostat in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with EZH2 activating mutations.

“With its development strategy for tazemetostat in DLBCL now supported by fast-track designation, we are recommending shares ahead of topline data from the Ph 2 registration-supporting study in 2017, as we believe the previously reported interim response rates will improve over time,” Nierengarten wrote in a note.

The analyst sees a number of advantages for tazemetostat’s favorable safety profile in comparison to chimeric antigen receptor T-Cell therapy (CAR-T), which is associated with significant treatment burden and clinical side effects.

Epizyme also said it's expanding the epithelioid sarcoma cohort to enroll an additional 30 patients as a result of encouraging early activity that includes objective responses. Epithelioid sarcomas are rare tumors, with an estimated annual incidence of about 120 patients in the US.

On the flip side, the company is likely to discontinue Synovial sarcoma study as it concluded that the activity of tazemetostat in this cohort is insufficient to continue further investigation.

At last check, shares of Epizyme fell 1.92 percent to $11.48. The analyst has a price target of $22.