Chardan Starts Spark Therapeutics At Neutral, Says 'The Good News Is The Bad News'

• Shares of Spark Therapeutics Inc ONCE have declined 33.22 percent over the past six months, touching a low of $38.91 on September 29.
• Chardan Capital’s Gbola Amusa has initiated coverage of the company with a Neutral rating and price target of $45.
• Amusa believes that company’s biggest advantage in the gene therapy markets is also the biggest obstacle to Spark Therapeutics’ share price.

Analyst Gbola Amusa explained that the company had the advantage of being the first to file in the U.S. However, given the regulatory and reimbursement uncertainties, this was also an important obstacle to its share price performance.

“We believe Spark has amply shown its clinical capabilities by producing a landmark phase III result on SPK-RPE65 in RPE65-mediated inherited retinal dystrophies, and could potentially be the first company to have a gene therapy product approved in the as-yet-to-mature United States gene therapy market,” Amusa went on to say.

However, Amusa also expressed concern that as a pioneer, the company would need to work on establishing the path forward with the U.S. regulators and payers for both gene therapy approvals and reimbursement.

In addition, apart from SPK-RPE65, which is expected to be launched in 2017, the rest of Spark Therapeutics’ pipeline appears “uninteresting” compared to other AAV-based gene therapy companies.