Merus (MRUS – Research Report), the Healthcare sector company, was revisited by a Wall Street analyst today. Analyst Charles Zhu from LifeSci Capital maintained a Buy rating on the stock and has a $110.00 price target.
Charles Zhu has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors, primarily focusing on the potential of Merus’s petosemtamab in combination with PD-1 therapy for treating head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The ongoing Phase 3 trial, LiGeR-HN1, is a key element in this assessment, where the combination therapy is being compared against monotherapy PD-1, which has shown promising results in terms of overall response rate and overall survival. Zhu highlights the importance of overall survival as a critical measure for the success of the therapy, noting historical data where significant differences in survival rates have been observed in similar studies.
Furthermore, while progression-free survival (PFS) is not the primary endpoint, Zhu acknowledges that investors are keen on seeing improvements in this metric as it could indicate sales potential. His analysis suggests that the PFS could range from 7.3 to 10.9 months, with a focus on mean PFS rather than median PFS for a more accurate sales potential estimate. Zhu remains confident in the LiGeR-HN1 trial’s potential, supported by the combination of petosemtamab’s single-agent profile with the standard of care, despite the challenges in interpreting overall survival results from small cohorts.
Zhu covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Merus, Mersana Therapeutics, and Zymeworks. According to TipRanks, Zhu has an average return of -11.8% and a 31.46% success rate on recommended stocks.
In another report released yesterday, Citi also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $97.00 price target.
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