Leerink Partners has launched coverage of Bellerophon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BLPH) with an “outperform” rating and $19 price target. The stock closed at $9.75 on Friday.
Bellerophon is focused on the development of products at the intersection of drugs and devices. It has two programs: INOpulse as an adjunctive treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a progressive orphan disease with a high unmet in more severe patients; and a bioabsorbable cardiovascular matrix (BCM) for the prevention of congestive heart failure after a large myocardial infarction.
“We view both these programs as attractive, given encouraging early data, a lack of alternative treatments, favorable price dynamics, and long exclusivity runways (patents end 2027-33),” writes analyst Jason Gerberry.
Near term, he sees an opportunity for Bellerophon shares to inflect with BCM European registration study data in mid-2015 and a potential INOpulse partnership in pulmonary hypertension associated with COPD (PH-COPD) in the second half this year.
He said a partnership could be worth more than $6 in upside to his price target, assuming about $50-million in upfront milestones, a mid-teens royalty, and about $200-million in commercial milestones.