Keep an eye on Centessa Pharmaceuticals (SYM: CNTA).
Just this morning, Morgan Stanley upgraded the biotech stock to an overweight rating, believing its orexin 2 could become a best-in-class treatment for narcolepsy. Analysts at B. Riley also initiated a buy rating on the stock with a $33 price target, noting that peak sales of its narcolepsy treatment could reach $1.85 billion.
So far, we know that Phase 1 data for that treatment were positive, and that the company plans to push it into Phase 2 testing quickly.
In fact, as noted in a company press release, “The Phase 1 acutely sleep-deprived healthy volunteer sleep study set a high bar for ORX750, and the early data generated has exceeded our expectations, giving us the confidence to accelerate the program into the next stage of clinical development earlier than anticipated,” said Saurabh Saha MD PhD, CEO of Centessa.
“We are very pleased that the data support the potential for ORX750 to restore normative wakefulness in patients with NT1, NT2, and IH at very low, once-daily oral doses. Underpinning these data is a favorable initial safety and tolerability profile for ORX750, which provides us with the flexibility to explore the therapeutic potential of OX2R agonists. Given the strength of the data generated to date and the exciting potential opportunities we see with ORX750, we are aggressively pursuing our clinical development plans and expect to initiate Phase 2 studies of ORX750 in patients with NT1, NT2 and IH beginning in the fourth quarter of 2024.”
