Mackie Research Capital initiated coverage of Profound Medical (TSX-V:PRN) with a “speculative buy” rating and 12-month target price of $3.30. The stock was quoted at $1.45 at mid-day on Wednesday.
“Relative to all approved prostate cancer treatments, we believe TULSA-PRO can clearly be differentiated with its clean safety profile, as well as decent efficacy,” writes analyst Andre Uddin.
“We believe Profound’s product has the potential to eventually become standard of care treatment for localized prostate cancer and take market share from Intuitive Surgical’s prostatectomy procedures,” he added.
Magnetic resonance imaging–guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (MRI-TULSA) is a minimally invasive technology for ablating prostate tissue, potentially offering good disease control of localized cancer.
Noting that the prostate cancer market is hot, Mr. Uddin said companies that have had good prostate cancer development stage products are being acquired.
“Profound could be an ideal acquisition/licensing candidate for a U.S. medical device company wanting to enter the prostate cancer market,” he added. Profound already has marketing deals with Siemens Healthcare and Royal Phillips, two key MRI players, and Royal Philips has been active on the acquisition front.
