Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) saw a handy gain on Monday after the firm received an upgrade from Morgan Stanley. The driving force behind this upgrade is Sarepta’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) treatments of Exondys 51 and golodirsen.
Morgan Stanley’s Matthew Harrison upgraded the stock to an Overweight rating with a $60 price target, implying upside of 32.3% from the most recent closing price of $45.36.
The firm believes that continued topline beats will drive Sarepta’s stock in the near term, while its “underappreciated” pipeline would provide for long-term optionality.
Harrison noted in the report that Sarepta’s DMD drug should have sales totaling about $55 million in the firm’s most recent quarter, which would beat out consensus estimates that are calling for $40 million.
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Additionally according to a new survey, more patients are now taking Exondys 51, reimbursement is improving slightly and it takes about seven weeks between prescription and first infusion of the therapy.
Sarepta’s DMD drug golodirsen, which has a different subset of patients that it treats separate from Exondys 51, posted positive results in a mid-stage clinical trial. Morgan Stanley believes that golodirsen also has a reasonable possibility of approval.
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Looking ahead to later this week, there are results expected from Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CATB) MoveDMD trial for the treatment of DMD on October 4. The company is presenting at the International Congress of World Muscle Society in France. Sarepta will be presenting data from its DMD trials at the event as well, and one of its posters will feature combo data with Catabasis. In the past, both of these companies have seen incredible volatility in response to their DMD trials.
Shares of Sarepta were last seen up about 8% at $48.93, with a consensus analyst price target of $65.07 and a 52-week range of $26.26 to $63.03.
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