Craig-Hallum bullish on Alpha Cognition, initiates with a Buy

Alpha Cognition (ACOG) with a Buy rating and $14 price target The firm says Alpha Cognition is an underappreciated commercial-stage spec pharma with a differentiated product in a large, underserved market, namely mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Its lead asset, Zunveyl, is a branded acetylcholinesterase inhibitor designed to address the tolerability issues that have long constrained the class and prevented many patients from receiving intended cognition benefits. As a prodrug, Zunveyl is bioequivalent to galantamine but engineered to avoid first-pass gut metabolism, materially reducing GI adverse events, which Craig-Hallum think will both improve persistence and allow patients who have failed on the class to reach truly therapeutic doses faster and remain on therapy.