Roth Capital partners launched coverage of Seelos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SEEL) with a “buy” rating and $8 price target. The stock closed at $2.71 on May 13.
Analyst Yasmeen Rahimi writes that Seelos has an enriched pipeline, with numerous milestones in 2019. The most important stock-moving event is top-line results in early 2020 from a study of SLS-002 (intranasal racemic ketamine) for the treatment of patients at imminent suicide risk.
“We view SLS-002 as a promising drug candidate for the treatment of patients suffering from acute suicidality,” she added. Among other things, Ms. Rahimi said a meta-analysis of 10 different studies, comprising 167 patients, showed that intravenous ketamine reduced suicidal ideation on day one, trending upwards to about 60% of patients free of suicidal ideation at day seven.
Seelos also is developing is SLS-005 (trehalose) for Sanfilippo Syndrome, a group of genetic disorders caused by a defective enzyme resulting in misfolded proteins.
She said trehalose inhibits the formation of toxic protein aggregates with three advantageous chemical characteristics, including high solubility, lack of toxicity, ability to cross blood-brain barrier, that make it a compelling molecule for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease.
