Spruce Biosciences downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Leerink

Leerink downgraded Spruce Biosciences (SPRB) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $2, down from $9. While the firm believes that tildacerfont inherently has the potential to work, since it is a CRF1 antagonist with the same target as Neurocrine’s (NBIX) crinecerfont which generated positive Phase 3 data, Leerink is moving to the sidelines as it questions study decisions like trial design, patient selection, and dose selection made by the prior management team that undermined CAHmelia-203 data reported on Wednesday and makes it uneasy about CAHmelia-204 data in Q3 2024. Without knowing exactly what issues conspired to compromise CAHmelia-203, the firm believes it will be a show-me-story until investors can gain comfort that Spruce can deliver compelling results in an increasingly competitive space.