UPDATE: Canaccord Genuity Initiates Coverage on Sarepta Therapeutics with Buy Rating, $47 PT on Etepliersen Uptake Potential

In a report published Tuesday, Canaccord Genuity analyst Ritu Baral initiated coverage on Sarepta Therapeutics

with a Buy rating and $47.00 price target. In the report, Baral noted, “Initiating with a BUY, $47 target on eteplirsen's potential for rapid, broad uptake driven by clean safety and good efficacy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a huge unmet need. SRPT's lead candidate, eteplirsen (ETE), induces skipping of exon 51 to restore production of functional dystrophin, whose absence is responsible for DMD pathology. We think ETE has a chance of accelerated approval, making it to market faster than competitor, Prosensa. Even if it doesn't, we think ETE's safety profile would allow it to rapidly assume majority market share if Prosensa's compound is well established at the time of launch. We conservatively model no accelerated approval, and our $47 target is based on pNPV analysis.” Sarepta Therapeutics closed on Monday at $35.85.