Jefferies Downgrades Aquinox Pharma After 'Failure' Of Flagship Trial

In a report published Friday, Jefferies analyst Biren Amin downgraded the rating on Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc AQXP from Buy to Hold, while reducing the price target from $13 to $2, after the company's flagship trial failed. Results of Aquinox's flagship trial of AZQ-1125 in 400 unstable COPD patients suggested that "no difference was found in the primary endpoint of improvement of COPD symptoms on EXACT score between AQX-1125 and placebo treated arms." "There was also no difference in the secondary endpoint of medically treated exacerbations (MTE) between AOX-1125 and placebo arms," the report mentioned. The company now intends to focus on the development of AQX-1125 in reducing bladder pain in interstitial cytistis based on encouraging Leadership trial data. "We are removing the revenues of AQX-1125 in COPD and now currently expect a peak risk-adjusted revenue of $226M (v. prev $393M) in 2028 for AQX-1125. We believe AQXP may restructure its clinical programs going forward to have enough cash to fund the IC pivotal trial, hence we have removed capital raises from our model," analyst Biren Amin wrote.