Mirati Therapeutics Sitravatinib Data, Explained

Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. MRTX shares are skyrocketing Friday in reaction to its announcement of positive preliminary data from two ongoing clinical trials of its non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, candidate sitravatinib.

The company said the data will be presented at the IASLC 2017 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology on Friday.

At time of writing, shares of Mirati were up 120 percent to $10.40.

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Leerink analysts Michael Schmidt, Varun Kumar and Jonathan Chang indicated that a new anecdotal case report of a single agent response, as well as clinical activity in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY‘s Opdivo in difficult to treat NSCLC patients not responding anymore to anti-PDI inhibitors will also be presented.

Leerink sees these early updates as positive news for Mirati. Additionally, the firm said this could potentially have a beneficial effect on the accrual of ongoing single agent cohorts, as well as development prospects in combination with Opdivo.

"Mirati's pipeline agents hold the promise to address compelling niche markets in cancer patients with rare genetic alterations," the analysts said in a note.

However, Leerink noted that trial enrollment has been slow and differentiation from other agents approved or in development is difficult to determine.

The firm views the first Opdivo combo results as an important positive data point, while it looks forward to additional results in a larger patient cohort.

As such, Leerink raised its price target by $2 to $9 to include probability-adjusted value for the Opdivo combination opportunity for sitravatinib in non-squamous NSCLC. The firm has a Market Perform rating on shares.