Wedbush Starts Iveric Bio Coverage With Bullish Rating On Zimura's Upcoming Pivotal Study

Iveric Bio Inc’s ISEE lead asset, Zimura, could begin a pivotal clinical study in the geographic atrophy market in the quarter, according to Wedbush.

The Analyst

Wedbush’s David Nierengarten initiated coverage of Iveric Bio with an Outperform rating and a price target of $13.

The Thesis

Geographic atrophy is estimated to represent a market opportunity of over $1 billion, with the current patient population at more than 1 million, Nierengarten said in the note.

In October, Iveric Bio had announced Zimura showed positive results in slowing the growth of lesions in its Phase 2 study. The company’s lead asset is also being investigated in Stargardt disease and data from this study could come as early as in the back half of 2002, the analyst noted.

Nierengarten expects more details of the trial design for Zimura’s pivotal study to be disclosed at Iveric Bio’s R&D investor symposium on Jan. 14.

He further wrote, “The company is also building a portfolio of gene therapy candidates, with the first program in autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP) likely to enter the clinic late this year.”

Price Action

Shares of Iveric Bio traded 4.2% higher to $8.46 at the time of publishing on Tuesday.