Sarepta's Burn Rate Is Unsustainable, Says Piper Jaffray

The FDA has asked Sarepta Therapeutics Inc SRPT to provide additional dystrophin data from the ongoing confirmatory PROMOVI trial for eteplirsen.

Piper Jaffray’s Edward A. Tenthoff maintained an Underweight rating on the company, with a price target of $6.

Additional Dataset

“Sarepta plans to submit western blot data from biopsy samples of 13 boys at baseline and Week 48 over the upcoming weeks. The dataset should prompt a decision by FDA following the recent PDUFA delay,” Tenthoff mentioned.

Related Link: Wedbush Upgrades Sarepta To Outperform As 'FDA Comes Up With Option C'

However, the dataset was expected to prompt the FDA to make a decision.

The analyst pointed out that since it was unknown what the PROMOVI dataset would reveal in terms of dystrophin expression, there was uncertainty regarding “how to handicap chances for Accelerated Approval at this point.”

Burn Rate

Tenthoff also believes Sarepta’s burn rate is unsustainable.

The company ended 1Q16 with $141 million in cash, equivalents and restricted investments, having spent $63 million during the quarter.

“At the current burn, we project Sarepta will run out of cash by YE:16,” the analyst said.