Cantor downgrades uniQure to Neutral on FDA setback

Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded uniQure (QURE) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $9, down from $55, after the company said the FDA “strongly recommended” a new, double-blind, sham surgery-controlled study for AMT-130 in Huntington’s disease. This “will inevitably set the company back a few years,” the analyst tells investors in a research note. Cantor believes uniQure may lose its first-mover competitive advantage with other therapies entering Phase 3 development, including drugs like PTC Therapeutics’ (PTCT) votoplam, which it says offers a much less invasive route of administration. uniQure in morning trading is down 39% to $9.61.