SVB Securities downgrades Seagen to Market Perform, lowers price target to $141

As previously reported, SVB Securities analyst Andrew Berens downgraded Seagen to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $141, down from $162, driven by insights into the Padcev opportunity in metastatic bladder cancer gleaned from a proprietary MEDACorp survey. This survey implies that Padcev, despite rapidly becoming the standard of care in the frontline, may have abbreviated duration because of cumulative vedotin toxicity concerns, and therefore have difficulty beating expectations following the initial ramp, the firm says. Further, with the antibody drug conjugate space rapidly evolving as large pharma expands efforts in this arena, SVB has concerns that Seagen could lose dominance, especially given a lack of visibility on the next significant asset emerging from the pipeline or a replacement for the MMAE technology that serves as the basis for all of the company’s late stage compounds.