Prima BioMed Shares Rally Following New Buy Rating, $6 Target From Roth Capital

• Prima BioMed Ltd (ADR) PBMD shares jumped 13 percent in premarket trading on December 31.
• Roth Capital’s Joseph Pantginis initiated coverage of the company with a Buy rating and a price target of $6.
• Initial clinical efficacy of LAG-3 has been promising, putting the company in a leading position in the development of new checkpoint inhibition pathways, Pantginis stated.

Prima BioMed’s shares have been highly volatile over the last few years, until May 2015, analyst Joseph Pantginis said. The reasons cited were:

1. Mixed results from CVac studies
2. Management changes

Pantginis added, however, that the company seems to have been transformed under the leadership of CEO Marc Voight, especially with acquisition of Immutep SA. Prima BioMed purchased Immutep for $25 million, in a transaction completed in October 2014.

LAG-3 [Lymphocyte-Activation Gene 3] is a major factor involved in the regulation of T-cells in immune responses. Prima BioMed announced in February 2015 that the product was now available for partnering.

Pantginis believes that Prima’s current CMO/CSO, Professor Frederic Triebel, was the key driver for the Immutep acquisition and the promise of LAG-3.

“We believe Prima is establishing a leadership role in immunotherapy and look at LAG-3 as a key new checkpoint inhibitor target. We believe the approach has further been validated by having partnerships with two global pharmas,” the analyst added, while recommending building positions in Prima BioMed.