CinCor Pharma price target lowered to $53 from $73 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler analyst Yasmeen Rahimi lowered the firm’s price target on CinCor Pharma to $53 from $73 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares after CinCor announced the Phase 2 HALO trial of baxdrostat in patients with uncontrolled hypertension taking up to two blood pressure medications at the maximally tolerated doses did not achieve statistical significance on its primary endpoint. While "surprised" to see the baxdrostat miss in uHTN, especially given the robust effect seen with the drug in the previously reported Phase 3 BrigHTN trial in rHTN, the primary reasons for the HALO miss were high placebo response rates, low adherence, and lower efficacy in Hispanic population, said Rahimi, who highlights that these events "do not question" the mechanism of action of the drug. The analyst further believes that "these confounding data could be controlled" in the Phase 3 trial, "leading to a positive outcome."