Avidity Biosciences downgraded to In Line at Evercore on safety concerns

As previously reported, Evercore ISI analyst Joshua Schimmer downgraded Avidity Biosciences to In Line from Outperform with a price target of $20, down from $25. After Avidity disclosed that the cause of the partial clinical hold for the Phase 1/2 MARINA study of AOC 1001 for DM1 was an extremely unusual clinical event that occurred around the time of the first infusion, Evercore said it is "quite concerned" that the event of bilateral thalamic ischemia/hemorrhage is a related to the AOC platform. At this point, the analyst does not see "a compelling risk/reward until enough patients have been dosed to feel comfortable that RNA‘s platform is both safe and competitive," Evercore says.