Leerink initiated coverage of InflaRx N.V. (NASDAQ:IFRX) with an “outperform” rating and $31 price target. The stock closed at $20.88 on Dec. 1.
“InflaRx has an opportunity to generate significant shareholder value with disease-modifying treatments aimed at inflammatory components of the immune system for patients suffering from devastating autoimmune disorders,” writes analyst Joseph Schwartz.
The company’s lead asset, IFX-1, is an intravenously administered anti-C5a monoclonal antibody positioned to enter two Phase 2 clinical trials in 2018, each addressing a different autoimmune disease.
Mr. Schwartz’s model assigns credit to the company’s clinical stage program only, which is its Phase 2 study evaluating IFX-1 as a first-in-class therapy for patients with moderate-severe hidradenitis suppurativa, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin caused by excessive C5a activity.
Recent Phase 2a safety data were positive and the efficacy results, albeit small in sample size, were encouraging, he added. The company has set expectations to initiate the Phase 2b section of the trial in the first quarter of 2018. “We ascribe a 70% probability of success to this program,” he said.
Mr. Schwartz said substantial pre-/clinical evidence supports the inhibition of C5a in the treatment of HS, and IFX-1 is the “leading agent in the clinic, in our view.”
