Today we have one more mid-year update on a Top Pick for 2013, from The Medical Technology Stock Letter Analyst John McCamant. For new subscribers, his Top Pick is nearly buyable at current levels; a market pullback in the next day or two could provide an opportunity to make this so-far successful selection your mid-year Top Pick. Here’s the update:Since the beginning of the year, Coronado Biosciences (CNDO) has added three important members of senior management, each with over two decades in the development and commercialization of two of the largest-selling autoimmune drugs ever, Remicade and Humira, both anti-TNF inhibitors that treat patients with the same conditions that CNDO’s TSO is being developed for.
CEO Harlan Weisman and Dr. Tom Schaible were at Centocor, each with key responsibility for Remicade. More recently, George Avgerinos, Ph.D., joined as Senior VP, Biological Operations, after 23 years at Abbott where he was most recently Vice President, Humira Manufacturing. All three executives are highly regarded and well experienced in the autoimmune sciences, and likely have little need to make a move to CNDO if they were not confident in TSO’s potential outcome in the randomized TRUST I trial.
CNDO recently announced completion of enrollment of TRUST-I, its Phase II clinical trial with TSO (Trichurissuis ova or CNDO-201) in 250 Crohn’s disease patients. As previously guided, top-line data is expected in the fourth quarter—in our view, by October. The final number of patients in the trial surpassed the target enrollment of 220 patients to accommodate individuals in the screening process when the trial’s enrollment goal was achieved. In our view, the additional 14% is encouraging as the company surpassed its target enrollment—which would add power to the trial.
The clock is now set for the binary event for CNDO and its lead drug candidate, TSO. At current prices, in our view, the risk/reward remains quite favorable. Should the Phase II results bear out as we expect, our TARGET PRICE would prove conservative as well. CNDO is a BUY under $8 with a $20 TARGET PRICE.
John McCamant, The Medical Technology Stock Letter, www.bioinvest.com, 510-843-1857, July 23, 2013