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On Wednesday after market close, abstracts for the now-virtual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting that will take place between May 29-31 were released. Commenting on the abstracts, Stifel analyst Stephen Willey said his reaction would be strongly-positive for MEI Pharma (MEIP); moderately-positive for both Seattle Genetics (SGEN) and Exelixis (EXEL); and neutral for MacroGenetics (MGNX), Compugen (CGEN) and Inovio (INO). Meanwhile, his peer at Jefferies argued that Allogene Therapeutics (ALLO) "looks to be one of the winners at ASCO 2020."

MEI UPDATE REINFORCES EMERGING BEST-IN-CLASS PROFILE: With a median duration of follow-up of now over 13 months, the still-stable 76% Overall Response Rate and not-yet-reached median duration of response achieved with single-agent, intermittently-dosed ME-401 reinforces Willey's belief that first half of 2021 TIDAL data will "clearly cement" the status of MEI Pharma’s ‘401 as a best-in-class treatment option in this setting. Further, the analyst believes the continued low incident rate of on-target/autoimmune-related adverse events and treatment discontinuations associated with the intermittent dosing schedule not only differentiates '401 from every other PI3K-delta inhibitor but also highlights the "combinability of this asset" with other mechanisms of action across a broader spectrum of B-cell malignancies.

TUCATINIB CNS BENEFIT 'LOOKS IMPRESSIVE': Stifel’s Willey pointed out that updated tucatinib data from Seattle Genetics in the subgroup of HER2CLIMB patients with baseline CNS metastases "looks impressive."He was also "quite surprised" by the unambiguous/uncontroversial outperformance of Merk's (MRK) pembrolizumab versus Seattle’s Adcetris in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma. While R/R HL represents a small part of the overall Adcetris revenue base, the analyst would expect these results to increase concern about competitive threats to Adcetris in earlier lines of Hodgkin's lymphoma therapy where head-to-head studies are currently ongoing.

'NOT INCREDIBLY THESIS CHANGING': Commenting on Exelixis' data, Willey told investors that while the 27% ORR rate and 6-month DOR appears "directionally encouraging" versus historical standard-of-care data in the post-PD-1/L1 setting, he doesn’t believe the data establishes clear competitive differentiation or suggests a Phase 3 win in the company's CONTACT 01 trial will be "an overly trivial undertaking." 

More bullish after the company disclosed in an ASCO abstract that CABOMETYX combination with checkpoint inhibitors has now been active in multiple solid tumors, Piper Sandler analyst Edward Tenthoff said he continues to forecast product sales of $776M in 2020 and expects that presentation of mCRPC data could form the basis for accelerated approval in 2021, with label expansions re-accelerating CABOMETYX sales to $918M in 2021. Tenthoff has an Overweight rating and a $30 price target on Exelixis shares.

'LIKELY NOT MEETING LOFTY EXPECTATIONS': Single-agent dose-expansion data for MacroGenics' MGD013 in a "surprisingly large number" of patients across a wide spectrum of tumor types certainly looks better than any of the competitive anti-LAG-3 mAb data generated to date, but the ORRs reported in non-small cell lung cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and ovarian cancer aren’t likely to elucidate any clear development path forward, Stifel’s Willey contended.

Meanwhile, Wedbush analyst David Nierengarten raised the firm's price target on MacroGenics to $28 from $16 following "encouraging" clinical updates from the company's earlier-stage pipeline candidates as previewed in the abstracts for the upcoming ASCO meeting May 29-31, as well as in the company's recent Q1 earnings call. Nierengarten believes these updates - including early Phase 1 dose-escalation data for MGD013, MGC018, and MGD019 in patients with advanced solid tumors - are broadly de-risking and further demonstrate the versatility of MacroGenics' antibody engineering platform, he tells investors.

TIGIT DEBATE: Commenting on the Phase 2 CITYSCRAPER trial evaluating Genentech's (RHHBY) atezolizumab ± tiragolumab in 135 newly-diagnosed NSCLC patients with PD-L1+ tumors, Stifel's Willey noted that the addition of tiragolumab nearly doubled ORR on an intent-to-treat basis and significantly improved median progression-free survival. The analyst is "sure some skepticism will arise here" as a function of diminished activity of the combination in lower PD-L1 expressing patients and cross-trial comparisons made to Merck's Phase 3 trials demonstrating single-agent pembrolizumab was associated with equally substantial improvements in ORR and median PFS in these same high-expressing patients. However, he believes this first look at tiragolumab data is sufficient to keep TIGIT on the firmly on the radar screens of investors. Moreover, Willey thinks Compugen's possession of COM701 – the only anti-PVRIG mAb in development – uniquely differentiates them from other anti-TIGIT pure-plays.

'ENCOURAGING,' STILL SHOW-ME STORY: Regarding Inovio, Stifel’s Willey believes that the only real data point of note here is the overall survival at 12 months data from Cohort A – the historically harder-to-treat GBM patients with presenting with an unmethylated MGMT promoter status. The 84% landmark OS12 data in these patients is "optically impressive" and certainly better than any historical data point from a randomized trial he can point to. However, he is cautious on all things immunotherapy related in GBM and note a number of uncontrolled Phase 2 trials have looked similarly encouraging, only to go on and unambiguously fail in a subsequent Phase 3 trial.

'ASCO WINNER': Meanwhile, Jefferies analyst Biren Amin raised his price target on Allogene Therapeutics to $45 from $37, while keeping a Buy rating on the shares after the company reported first-in-human data from the ALLO-501 program in an abstract for the upcoming virtual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists. The early trial results point to a 78% overall response and 39% complete response rate with 4 patients receiving the lowest dose, Amin noted. The analyst thinks Allogene "looks to be one of the winners at ASCO 2020."

His peer at Oppenheimer also raised the firm's price target on Allogene to $50 from $44, maintaining an Outperform rating on the shares. Although early, Analyst Mark Breidenbach believes the data presented suggests that ALLO-501 could go toe-to-toe with autologous CAR-Ts on performance and safety-setting a new bar for allogeneic CAR-Ts in NHL and underscoring the importance of Allogene's antibody-dependent approach to lymphodepletion.

Not as bullish following the abstract release, SunTrust analyst Asthika Goonewardene downgraded Allogene Therapeutics to Hold from Buy with a higher price target of $32, up from $29. The analyst noted that the company "executed well," delivering a "good" first read-out of its allogeneic CAR-T drug, ALLO-501, in lymphoma. However, while the abstract "checks the boxes" on what a Phase 1 dose-escalation study can deliver on, Goonewardene believes the valuation on the stock has "filled in" to his price target. Nonetheless, the analyst remains positive on Allegene's potential to deliver an allogeneic CAR-T product with "solid market potential."

PRICE ACTION: In afternoon trading, shares of MEI Pharma have dropped over 1% to $2.80, Exelixis has slid almost 7% to $24.78, MacroGenics has slipped over 6% to $24.87, and Compugen has plunged about 17% to $11.60. On the flip side, shares of Allogene have jumped almost 32% to $40.81, Seattle Genetics has advanced more than 2% to $161.38 and Inovio is fractionally up at $13.42.