Celldex Therapeutics (CLDX) remains one of our Top Picks for 2021 with the company delivering value creating data updates so far this year.

The company’s lead drug development candidate is CDX-0159, a humanized monoclonal antibody that specifically binds the receptor tyrosine kinase (KIT) with high specificity and potently inhibits its activity.

KIT is expressed in a variety of cells, including mast cells, which mediate inflammatory responses such as hypersensitivity and allergic reactions. In many inflammatory and allergic diseases, such as chronic urticaria, mast cell activation plays a central role in the onset and progression of the disease. 

CLDX recently announced their next data event will be Phase Ib data for CDX-0159 in chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU) which will be featured in a late-breaking presentation at the upcoming European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) conference in July.

CLDX also recently presented data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting for CDX-527, a bi-specific antibody which targets both PD-L1 x CD27 with a single antibody.  The data showed that in solid tumors refractory to standard-of-care therapy both T-cell and NK-cell activation was observed. 

PD-L1 drugs like Keytruda are multi-billion dollar treatments but are only effective in 30% of cancer patients. CDX-527 has potential to address the 70% patients who don’t respond to Keytruda by turning back on the immune system which the cancer itself has ingeniously suppressed to prevent detection.

The stock has risen 53% so far this year. Given the company’s broad progress in 2021 we have raised our "buy" to $30 (from $20) and our target price to $40 (from $30).