HC Wainwright has upgraded Oncternal Therapeutics Inc ONCT to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $2.
At the European Hematology Association meeting earlier this year, Oncternal revealed initial findings from preclinical investigations that studied T cells and natural killer (NK) cells carrying the company’s ROR1 CAR, which includes the antigen-binding part of zilovertamab.
NK92 cells engineered with the anti-ROR1 CAR showed degranulation when exposed to ROR1-positive cancer cells in lab tests.
Moreover, anti-ROR1 CAR T cells exhibited significant anti-tumor activity against a rapidly growing mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) line called JeKo-1 in animal experiments.
Although cancer cell growth increased in mice treated with the lowest dose, both the intermediate and high doses of anti-ROR1 CAR-T cells effectively kept the cancer cell burden at a low level. These results are particularly noteworthy considering the effectiveness of zilovertamab vedotin and the preclinical data for ONCT-808.
During the 2023 annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, Merck & Co Inc MRK presented initial results from the Phase 2 waveLINE-004 trial of zilovertamab vedotin (MK-2140)—a ROR1-targeted ADC that Merck acquired for approximately $2.8 billion in 2020 through its purchase of VelosBio—for relapsed or refractory (r/r) DLBCL patients who had either progressed after or were ineligible for autologous stem cell therapy.
Zilovertamab vedotin achieved a 30% overall response rate (ORR) with a 10% complete response (CR) in 20 patients evaluated for efficacy, which is consistent with the 29% ORR observed in r/r DLBCL patients (n=17) in the Phase 1 waveLINE-001 trial.
Analysts Raghuram Selvaraju and Robert Burns state that the waveLINE-004 results serve as a benchmark that ONCT-808 must surpass significantly.
Price Action: ONCT shares are down 3.11% at $0.34 as of the last check on Monday.
