Allogene Therapeutics downgraded at Guggenheim after development strategy shift

As previously reported, Guggenheim downgraded Allogene Therapeutics to Neutral from Buy and removed the firm’s price target after the company announced deprioritizing the ongoing pivotal ALPHA2 and EXPAND trials of ALLO-501A in third-line-plus LBCL in favor of now pursuing a first-line LBCL consolidation strategy in MRD+ patients in a new 230-patient ALPHA3 trial. While the firm agrees that this strategy could offer a better opportunity to demonstrate potential differentiation and even opens up a potentially larger patient population, this strategy shift causes a significant delay to market for ALLO-501A and removes a key near-term catalyst, the analyst tells investors.