Stifel initiated coverage of Tectonic Therapeutic (NASDAQ:TECX) with a “buy” rating and price target of $75.00. The stock closed at $29.96 on April 13.
Tectonic is a clinical-stage biotech, developing therapies targeting GPCRs for various diseases. Most important near-term is TX45, a relaxin agonist for the treatment of Group 2 PH-HFpEF.
“While long pursued as a target/MOA given compelling biology, multiple relaxin agonists have failed in clinical development (including LLY and AZN recently) which poses an overhang for the stock,” writes analyst James Condulis.
“That said, we think these setbacks are a function of poor PK/dosing, trial design, and patient selection,” he added. “As such, we think there are reasons to remain optimistic for TX45 ahead of ph2 data in late-26/early-27. TECX is: (1) enriching for a population in CpcPH-HFpEF where the disease maps very well to relaxin biology (elevated PVR and PCWP); (2) they’ve demonstrated consistent/meaningful improvements on both PVR and PCWP (alongside a consistent/favorable broader hemodynamic profile); (3) both PVR and PCWP have been independently associated with benefits on 6MWD (the registrational endpoint) in relevant disease contexts–including Group 2; and (4) improvements in both PVR AND PCWP have been associated with robust 6MWD benefits in CpcPH-HFpEF specifically.”
Mr. Condulis concluded, “Now to be clear, this is a high-risk trial. And some of the prior relaxin failures (specifically AZN) are hard to fully reconcile–that said, in the context of the commercial opportunity (~400-700K CpcPH-HFpEF patients in the US alone), we think the risk/reward ahead of data is compelling, especially as HHT/TX2100 is (rightly–novel MOA with some clinical validation and strong preclinical data in a large rare disease market) starting to garner meaningful credit in the stock.”
