Rapt Therapeutics initiated with a Buy at Stifel

Stifel initiated coverage of Rapt Therapeutics with a Buy rating and $40 price target. Proof-of-concept data from RPT193 in Atopic Dermatitis, or AD, are “supportive of its potential to be the first non-JAK oral in the growing AD market,” the analyst tells investors. The firm thinks Otelza’s success in the Psoriasis market offers support to the thesis that an oral with markedly-lower efficacy can still garner share in a large chronic market and it likes the set-up into upcoming Phase 2b data, the firm added. A signal of clear efficacy, even if “marginally worse than Dupixent,” could see shares up 75%, but the firm cautions that “this readout is binary, with a failure sending shares down 60%+.”