Larimar clinical hold removal ‘nice surprise,’ says William Blair

William Blair keeps an Outperform rating on Larimar Therapeutics after the FDA removed the partial clinical hold on the company’s nomlabofusp program in development for Friedreich’s ataxia. Management will continue to work with the FDA regarding protocol changes if it believes additional escalation above 50 mg is required to achieve target fully characterizing frataxin levels to maintain regulatory interactions, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says the entire partial clinical hold removal is a “nice surprise.” Blair sees the hold removal as “regulatory buy-in” that restoring FXN expression could provide a functional and disease-modifying benefit to Friedreich’s ataxia patients. Larimar in midday trading is up 18% to $8.55.