Roche: share drops after clinical trial disappoints.
(CercleFinance.com) - Roche's shares are down over 4% on Tuesday morning, after trial data at ASCO meeting in Chicago disappointed investors.
Analysts said Perjeta plus Herceptin delivered an improvement in disease free survival of just 0.9 point at three years compared to Herceptin alone in HER2+ breast cancer, against expectations of a 1-to-2 point improvement.
Bryan Garnier therefore downgraded its rating on the stock from "buy" to "neutral," with a lower fair value of 275 Swiss francs from 285 Swiss francs.
"Overall, the impact is negative and we see the investment case on Roche questioned by this disappointing outcome," the broker said.
Meanwhile, Liberum maintained its "hold" rating on the shares, with a target price of 274 Swiss francs, although admitted that the data "meaningfully disappointed".
"We believe this disappointing data will make clinical acceptance of the expensive combo treatment more difficult and will limit Roche's ability to protect its HER2+ franchise from biosimilars," the British investment bank wrote in a research report.
Liberum still said that this implies 4%-5% downside on its 2020 EPS forecasts for the group.
After this disappointment, Roche shares were down 4.6% at 252.6 Swiss francs, making them the sharpest faller on Zurich's SMI index.
Copyright (c) 2017 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.
Analysts said Perjeta plus Herceptin delivered an improvement in disease free survival of just 0.9 point at three years compared to Herceptin alone in HER2+ breast cancer, against expectations of a 1-to-2 point improvement.
Bryan Garnier therefore downgraded its rating on the stock from "buy" to "neutral," with a lower fair value of 275 Swiss francs from 285 Swiss francs.
"Overall, the impact is negative and we see the investment case on Roche questioned by this disappointing outcome," the broker said.
Meanwhile, Liberum maintained its "hold" rating on the shares, with a target price of 274 Swiss francs, although admitted that the data "meaningfully disappointed".
"We believe this disappointing data will make clinical acceptance of the expensive combo treatment more difficult and will limit Roche's ability to protect its HER2+ franchise from biosimilars," the British investment bank wrote in a research report.
Liberum still said that this implies 4%-5% downside on its 2020 EPS forecasts for the group.
After this disappointment, Roche shares were down 4.6% at 252.6 Swiss francs, making them the sharpest faller on Zurich's SMI index.
Copyright (c) 2017 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.