UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Upgrades Alexza Pharmaceuticals to Overweight, Raises PT on Adasuve Market Adoption

In a report published Wednesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Charles C. Duncan upgraded the rating on Alexza Pharmaceuticals

from Neutral to Overweight, and raised the price target from $5.00 to $10.00. In the report, Duncan noted, “We are raising our rating and price target on Alexza following diligence involving multiple physician interviews we recently conducted. Our outreach to ER physicians, psychiatrists, and opinion leaders points to several factors that enhance our conviction on both the near- and longer-term market potential for Adasuve versus our previous projections. Additionally, we believe Adasuve clinical attributes underlying our new perspective bode well for a value-added partnership being signed soon to enable effective launch in 3Q13. We anticipate several metrics for tracking early Adasuve commercialization, including P&T committee decisions, formulary acceptance, initial and new orders, as well as physicians completing the REMs program and progress with the Phase IV study, which may or may not be reported by Alexza. Changes to our valuation are highlighted in Exhibits 1 through 3. We are increasing our price target from $5 to $10 and raising our rating to Overweight from Neutral on Alexza.” Alexza Pharmaceuticals closed on Tuesday at $4.39.