Hard To See If Regeneron's Eylea Combo Study Failure Reads Through To Ophthotech's Fovista

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Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc REGN announced that the Phase 2 CAPELLA trial of Eylea co-formulated with an anti-PDGFR-beta antibody, runicumab, did not meet the primary endpoint.

Baird’s Brian P. Skorney maintained a Neutral rating on the company, with a price target of $448. He mentioned that the co-formulation arms performed worse than Eylea alone.

“While this is a high-profile failure for Regeneron, it implies higher risk of failure for potentially competitor, Fovista, but also makes Fovista's more dangerous to Eylea's market share, should it succeed,” the analyst stated.

Eylea monotherapy performed better than the co-formulation arms on both the primary and the secondary endpoints, including the anatomic endpoints of reduced retinal thickness and resolution of sub-retinal hyper-reflective material.

Related Link: Here's Why Ophthotech Is Trading Down On Regeneron's News

What It Means For Fovista

Ophthotech Corp’s OPHT Fovista is currently in Phase 3 trials in combination with Avastin and Lucentis.

“If successful, we would expect to see a shift in market share away from Eylea towards Lucentis and Avastin due to the combination potential with Fovista,” Skorney said.

However, the failure of Regeneron’s own Eylea/anti-PDGFR combination might indicate that the Fovista results could also be negative.p

“Even if Fovista fails in Phase 3, we think it is important in the long-run that Regeneron has a next-generation co-formulation for Eylea to combat against biosimilar Lucentis erosion,” the analyst added.

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Posted In: Analyst ColorLong IdeasReiterationAnalyst RatingsTrading IdeasBairdBrian P. SkorneyEYLEAFovistarunicumab
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