Apellis downgraded at Wells with pegcetacoplan EU approval ‘unlikely’

Wells Fargo downgraded Apellis (APLS) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $54, down from $67, after the company announced an update on the ongoing review of its marketing authorization application for intravitreal pegcetacoplan for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency. The firm, which has taken down its view of the odds of EU approval to 10%, argues that “it is difficult for us to assign significantly more value” to Apellis relative to Iveric bio’s (ISEE) takeout price of about $6B if pegcetacoplan is not approved in the EU and that now “seems unlikely.”