Ladenburg Thalmann initiated coverage of Immunome (NASDAQ:IMNM) with a “buy” rating and price target of $28. The stock closed at $11.74 on Oct. 23.
Immunome is using its Immunome Discovery Engine (IDE) platform to discover and develop patient-derived antibodies to treat cancer, infectious and other diseases.
“We see patient-derived antibodies to have inherently reduced risks for safety, immunogenicity, and pharmacokinetics, and also increased probability of clinical translation and potential faster development, by leveraging the highly educated and validated antibody response from responder patients who have learned to fight off their diseases,” writes analyst Wangzhi Li, Ph.D.
In addition, the IDE platform can reveal novel function clusters from the responder patients’ cancer-beating immune responses, in an “unbiased, broad, deep and efficient way,” he added.
Dr. Li said Immunome expects its lead infectious disease program, IMM-BCP-01, a differentiated antibody cocktail therapy for COVID-19, to enter clinic in the first half of 2021, and its lead oncology program IMM-ONC-01, a patient-derived anti-IL-38 antibody, to file an IND in the second half of 2021. The company also expects to advance one-to-two products into IND-enabling studies every year from its IDE platform.
“We recommend Immunome as we view it as an emerging leader in the rising patient/human-derived antibody discovery space, and see the further maturation of its platform, progression of its pipeline and potential attraction of partnerships to keep creating value for Immunome down the line,” he added.
