** Corvus Pharmaceuticals' shares rise 6.5% to $8.05 in premarket trading

** Mizuho upgrades stock to "outperform" from "neutral"; raises target price to $12 from $3.5

** Brokerage bullish on new momentum for CRVS' experimental drug soquelitinib

** CRVS is testing soquelitinib as a treatment for rare white blood cell cancer and atopic dermatitis or eczema, an immune disease that causes red and itchy skin rashes

** Brokerage raises its estimates on the drug on a higher U.S. launch-year price assumption and a new revenue contribution from drug in eczema, among others

** With ~2 mln U.S. patients that are resistant to first-line treatments, eczema represents a large market opportunity - brokerage

** Adds that CRVS believes drug could have potential utility in as many as 14 other immune diseases

** Early-stage data in atopic dermatitis expected shortly, and brokerage says positive data could provide key validation and take CVRS shares meaningfully higher

** Avg rating of analysts covering stock is "buy"; median is $8 - LSEG data

** As of last close, stock had more than quadrupled YTD

(Reporting by Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru)

((Sukriti.Gupta@thomsonreuters.com;))