TERN-701’s Superior Efficacy and Safety in CML Underpin Buy Rating and Top 2026 Pick on Terns Pharmaceuticals

William Blair analyst Andy Hsieh has reiterated their bullish stance on TERN stock, giving a Buy rating on January 8.

Andy Hsieh has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors centered on the strength of TERN-701’s clinical profile in chronic myeloid leukemia and its commercial potential. He emphasizes that the drug has shown unusually strong performance in heavily pretreated CML patients, delivering response rates that significantly exceed those seen with Novartis’s Scemblix in early-stage studies. In addition to higher efficacy, he notes that TERN-701 has demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability pattern, with no signals of key toxicities that are concerns for competing agents, and its once-daily oral dosing without food restrictions offers a clear convenience advantage for patients. These attributes position TERN-701 to compete directly with and potentially displace the current standard, Scemblix, in a roughly $5 billion global CML market.

Hsieh further highlights that response rates observed at 24 weeks in Phase I trials historically have been reliable predictors of outcomes in later-stage studies for this class of drugs, which underpins his confidence that the strong data for TERN-701 can carry into pivotal trials. Management’s plan to advance TERN-701 into a Phase III program within the next 12 months—initially in second-line or later CML and eventually in the frontline setting—provides a clear clinical development roadmap and multiple value-creating milestones. Coupled with what he views as a solid balance sheet and adequate cash resources to support these initiatives, Hsieh believes the company is well positioned to execute on its strategy. Collectively, these factors lead him to maintain an Outperform (Buy) rating and to designate Terns Pharmaceuticals as his top stock pick for 2026.

In another report released on January 8, Truist Financial also reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $56.00 price target.

Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 12 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders selling their shares of TERN in relation to earlier this year.