Nuvalent’s NVL-655 ORR likely to eliminate bear theses, says Stifel

Stifel made no change to the firm’s Buy rating on Nuvalent after the company announced preliminary data from the Phase 1 dose-escalation portion of its ongoing ALKOVE-1 Phase 1/2 clinical trial of NVL-655 for patients with advanced ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer. The firm says the 45% headline ORR far exceeds Street expectations of what continued ALK inhibition could achieve in the heavily penetrated ALK+ NSCLC population, telling investors that the high ORR will likely eliminate all bear theses. Stifel believes Nuvalent will become a “must-own” SMID oncology stock given the quality of the asset and materiality of the development opportunity.