UPDATE: Oppenheimer Upgrades Ariad Pharmaceuticals to Outperform, Raises PT on Revised Outlook Following Recent Updates

In a report published Monday, Oppenheimer analyst David Ferreiro upgraded the rating on

from Perform to Outperform, and raised the price target from $23.00 to $24.00. In the report, Oppenheimer noted, “Following ARIA's recent updates at ESMO, we revised our outlook on ARIA's pipeline, focusing on the AP26113 program in ALK+ NSCLC as well as Iclusig in first-line CML. Regarding Iclusig, we continue to have high conviction in Iclusig's efficacy and thus believe it will achieve significant adoption in the first-line setting, despite Gleevec genericization. The '113 program in ALK+ NSCLC is also compelling, in our view; we believe '113 is a much stronger contender than Novartis's LDK378, given the cleaner safety profile, and anticipate meaningful uptake in the crizotinib-refractory setting. We are raising our PT from $23 to $24 and upgrading to Outperform.” Ariad Pharmaceuticals closed on Friday at $18.69.