Evercore expects Vera Therapeutics to trade up on Alpine acquisition news

After Alpine Immune Sciences (ALPN) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which Vertex will acquire Alpine for $65 per share, or $4.9B in cash, Evercore ISI analyst Liisa Bayko noted that Alpine is transitioning to Phase 3 development later this year for povetacicept in IgA Nephropathy, or IgAN. The B cell modulator space within IgAN is “hot,” with Alpine marking the second acquisition in the class in the last 10 months, adds the analyst, who sees Alpine trailing Otsuka, Vera Therapeutics (VERA) and Novartis (NVS), who are already in Phase 3, by about one to two years. With Alpine now off the market, Vera is now “the only free-standing B cell modulator in the IgAN space and it’s trading at just $2B in value,” says the analyst, who expects Vera will trade up on the Alpine acquisition news. Evercore has an Outperform rating and $50 price target on Vera shares, which are up $4.70, or 11%, to $46.32 in early pre-market trading.