The market was seeing Ocular Therapeutix (OCUL -6.52%) very positively this week, and that sunny view pushed the company's stock higher.
As of Friday morning before market open, the eye care specialist's shares were up by nearly 5% in price week to date, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. A key catalyst for this was an analyst's bullish initiation of coverage on the biotech's stock.
Early Tuesday morning, Needham's Serge Belanger formally became an Ocular analyst. He inaugurated his run by tagging the company's stock as a buy at a price target of $15 per share. That's nearly double the stock's current level.
According to reports, Belanger is a believer in Ocular mainly on the potential of its investigational Axpaxli, a drug that targets the retinal disorder wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The analyst feels that if approved by major regulators and brought to market, the drug could change how the affliction is treated.
Belanger wrote in his analysis that the treatment is a standout among comparable medications with its longer duration, among other advantages. He feels it has the potential to be a blockbuster drug for patients requiring a maintenance regime.
There is a decent-sized potential patient base for wet AMD in this country. According to data cited by University of California at Irvine Medical School, around 200,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. If Axpaxli can truly distinguish itself, it certainly has blockbuster potential, and that makes Ocular a stock well worth watching.
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