PTC Therapeutics downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citi

Citi downgraded PTC Therapeutics to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $17, down from $29, following the company’s Q3 arnings and pipeline update. Although the new royalty agreement with Royalty Pharma improves PTC’s near-term financial position, the upfront cash comes at the expense of future Evrysdi royalties, which Citi previously viewed as one of the company’s key growth drivers, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Further, PTC announced new regulatory and development headwinds, such as requests for additional trials and program timeline delays, impacting sepiapterin, vatiquinone, and Upstaza, says the firm. Citi says that with “substantially increased uncertainty” across virtually all PTC’s key pipeline programs, it models more conservative probabilities of success for various programs accordingly.