MacroGenics downgraded to Neutral at Guggenheim on prostate cancer caution

As previously reported, Guggenheim analyst Charles Zhu downgraded MacroGenics to Neutral from Buy and removed the firm’s prior price target. Management have updated their metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or mCRPC, strategy given emerging radioligands and their view that AR re-challenge is becoming less acceptable as a control arm, which is in line with the firm recent feedback from key opinion leaders. However, this would also raise the bar for vobramitamab duocarmazine in mCRPC should AR re-challenge not be ultimately selected as a Phase 3 control arm. The firm is also cautious on the potential of a CPI + docetaxel to demonstrate clear efficacy over docetaxel alone and believes "that this particular approach will be a ‘show-me’ story," the analyst added.