Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of Gracell Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:GRCL) with an “overweight” rating and $20 price target. The stock closed at $3.29 on May 31.
Gracell is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing breakthrough cell therapies in the treatment of cancer.
“The peak sales potential of Gracell’s product pipeline is underappreciated, in our view, and we expect upward earnings estimate revisions to potentially move Gracell’s stock higher,” writes analyst Louise Chen.
She said upward earnings estimate revisions could be driven by pipeline advancements and/or partnerships. Gracell has an estimated cash runway into 2024.
The company aims to disrupt conventional approaches to CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T-cells) or cell therapies with its proprietary technology platforms: FasTCAR and TruUCAR, Ms. Chen said.
With FasTCAR, she said Gracell is able to deliver younger, less exhausted T-cells for autologous cell therapies with enhanced activities and next-day manufacturing, compared with the industry norm of two-to-six weeks.
With TruUCAR, Gracell is able to derive T-cells from non-human leukocyte antigen-matched healthy donors to generate allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies that are readily available off-the-shelf at a lower cost for a broad patient base, including those less suitable for autologous CAR- T cell therapies, M.s Chen added.
