Nkarta downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair

William Blair downgraded Nkarta (NKTX) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target The firm views the company’s expansion into primary membranous nephropathy positively. However, the protocol modifications to include flu in the preconditioning regimen “gives us pause” as it is unclear if the decision was partly influenced by some early clinical data from the trials, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Blair says that without a reduced lymphodepletion regimen, it finds it increasingly challenging to discern how NKX019 may be differentiated from other Covid-19 allogeneic cell therapies in the increasingly competitive autoimmune disease space.