Liquid Biopsy · @Liquid_Biopsy
27th Mar 2015 from TwitLonger
LOL: ROTH $OHRP reiterate our Buy rating with a target price of $30/share Final IMPACT Results - Moving to Phase 3
While Ohr has not achieved all of the ambitious goals in Phase 2 development
for its AMD drug candidate, the program is ready for Phase 3 development,
with comparable benefits seen to Fovista, developed by rival Opthotech
(OPHT-NC). We reiterate our Buy rating with a target price of $30/share.
Final Data Out:
Ohr has released top line data for its AMD drug candidate
OHR-102. While we are still expecting further details at an upcoming scientific
presentation in early May, it appears that OHR-102 had an impact only for
patients in the "classic" subset of AMD (~2/3 of total). Fifty percent more
treated patients gained >=3 lines on the eye chart (42% vs. 28%) vs. placebo.
This effect was comparable to that observed with Ophthotech's Fovista.
Visual Acuity Gains:
On average, patients with classic AMD gained 10.5
additional letters on the eye chart vs. 5.4 letters gained in patients on
placebo (plus Lucentis background therapy for both arms) after nine months
of treatment. Ophthotech observed 10.6 vs. 6.5 letter improvement in their trial
testing injectable Fovista (+/- Lucentis injections).
Significance?:
Whereas the benefit provided by OHR-102 and Fovista are
eerily similar, the key difference lies in the robustness of these observations.
Ophthotech achieved statistical significance (150 patients in each arm), but
Ohr did not. By focusing on the classical AMD subset, only ~30 patients were
analyzed in each arm. Additional analyses provided for first 62 patients last
year gives us confidence that the drug is indeed active and provides a further
visual benefit over Lucentis. We are awaiting more detailed evaluations for the
entire population to refine the likelihood of success of the upcoming Phase 3
trials