Ladenburg Thalmann Analysts Initiate Coverage On Trillium At Buy, $18 Price Target

Further, the target price of $18 represents a potential upside of 95 percent over Tuesday's close of $9.21.

Toronto-based Trillium is an immuno-oncology-focused company developing innovative therapies for cancer. Its lead program, TTI-621, is a antibody-like fusion protein targeting CD47, the blockade of which is shown to have improved anti-tumor phagocytosis and innate immunity.

"We expect TTI-621 to likely show better safety, higher potency and/or more favorable PK profile than the other lead competitors, and have best-in-class potential," analyst Wangzhi Li said.

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Li noted that the current market values Trillium at about $45 million–$95 million, exclusive of its current cash (about $45 million). In fact, the analyst said the upfront payments alone were over $200 million for the co-development/promotion partnership rights to a number of similar immune-oncology programs at preclinical or Phase 1 stage.

Li sees escalation in partnership interest with Trillium if TTI-621 shows positive results in Phase 1 study.

The analyst noted that there is multiple downside protection to the stock in the form of sufficient cash balance, CD200 mAb platform, fluorine-based medicinal chemistry platform and a pipeline of small molecules directed at immuno-oncology targets.

"Our modeling indicates the downside valuation of TRIL is protected at over $50 million, or over $4.70 per diluted share, even in the potential scenario of writing off the TT1-621 program," Li continued.

At time of writing, shares of Trillium were up 5.54 percent to $9.72.

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