ProMIS Neuroscience heading to $26, says Leede Jones Gable

Leede Jones Gable analyst Douglas W. Loe reiterated a “Speculative Buy” rating on drug developer ProMIS Neurosciences (ProMIS Neurosciences Stock Quote, Charts, News, Analysts, Financials TSX:PMN) in a Monday report. Loe gave a positive review of recent clinical results that relate to ProMIS’ clinical program in treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. 

ProMIS Neurosciences more than doubled in value in trading on Monday after the company released preclinical data supporting its lead candidate for Alzheimer’s, PMN310, an antibody which targets toxic amyloid-beta oligomers (mAbs). ProMIS also presented pre-clinical mouse data on a computationally-derived Alzheimer’s vaccine directed at mAbs, with both data sets presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in Amsterdam.

“We are excited about the new data presented at the AAIC conference on mechanisms and monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease and emerging treatment options which we believe may improve the lives of patients and their families,” said Gail Farfel, Ph.D., CEO of ProMIS Neurosciences, in a press release. “The increasingly recognized benefit of targeting oligomers of Aβ underscores the potential advantage of our PMN310 antibody and AβO vaccine candidates.”

Earlier this year, ProMIS had received US FDA clearance for its Investigative New Drug (IND) application and is now aiming to commence a Phase 1a trial evaluating pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability in healthy adult volunteers. 

In his report, Loe commented on recent favourable Phase 1 data from ProMIS peer Acumen Pharmaceuticals, which is trialling its own beta-amyloid oligomer-targeted mAb, ACU193. The data, also presented at the AAIC in Amsterdam.

Loe said that while the ACU193 trial was not designed to reveal any impact on cognitive impairment (and no such impact was revealed in the data), the trial did show how ACU193 was able to exhibit pharmacokinetic characteristics in human testing similar to those found in preclinical testing.

The result is relevant to ProMIS and PMN310, Loe argued.

“Our key takeaway is that an analogous mAb to PMN310, both structurally and functionally, behaved in Phase I testing in ways that support the relevance of singularly targeting beta-amyloid oligomers and not other beta-amyloid forms as a way to mitigate cognitive impairment that amyloid physiology confers, and this is mechanistically positive to our investment thesis on PMN310 as well, in our view,” Loe wrote.

With his “Speculative Buy” rating, Loe also maintained a 12-month target price on PMN of $26.00 per share, which at press time represented a projected return of 614 per cent.