Arcturus to receive booster approval in Japan this year, says H.C. Wainwright

H.C. Wainwright analyst Ed Arce affirms a Buy rating on Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT) with a $51 price target after interim data from a Phase 3 non-inferiority study conducted in Japan by Meiji Seika Pharma, Arcturus’ partner to develop and market the self-amplifying mRNA vaccine candidate ARCT-154 as a COVID-19 vaccine in Japan, were published as a pre-print article on medRxiv.org. ARCT-154 met the trial’s primary endpoint of geometric mean titers and seroresponse rates of neutralizing antibodies against Wuhan-Hu-1 SARS-CoV-2 virus on day 29 after a booster shot of ARCT-154 or Pfizer’s (PFE) Comirnaty, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Based on these data, the firm expects ARCT-154 to receive regulatory approval in Japan as a booster dose in 2023.