Chardan Starts Opexa Therapeutics With Buy Rating, $6 Price Target

• The share price of Opexa Therapeutics Inc OPXA have declined 47.4 percent year to date, touching a low of $2.534 on August 24.
• Chardan Capital’s Keay Nakae has initiated coverage of the company with a Buy rating and price target of $6.
• Nakae views Tcelna as a “promising compound” for the treatment of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and positive topline results from the Phase2b Abili-T study could drive the stock.

Analyst Keay Nakae believes that “unequivocal positive data has the potential to drive significant appreciation in the stock from its current level, while a negative result would likely result in a significant decline in the stock price.”

Results from the trial are expected in the latter half of 2016. Opexa Therapeutics’ lead product, Tcelna, helps trigger a strong immune response against particular autoreactive T-cells known to be the underlying cause of multiple sclerosis (MS). Therefore, therapy using Tcelna is hypothesized to be able to reduce the risk of relapse over time.

“Due to its high selectivity, the drug has exhibited an excellent overall safety profile in the 142 MS patients who have been treated with Tcelna in completed clinical studies, with no drug-related serious adverse events reported,” Moskow reported.

Given that there are limited treatment options for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), Tcelna has received Fast Track Designation from the FDA.

Opexa Therapeutics is also in the process of developing another compound, OPX-212 for the treatment of neuromyelitis optica, “which is a relapsing inflammatory demyelinating orphan disease that most commonly affects optic nerves and the spinal cord,” Moskow explained.

The company has already received $5 million in milestone funding for the development of this drug and is expected to file an IND by the end of 2015.