Bellicum Pharma: Investors, analysts bullish as FDA lifts hold on trial

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals

12/04/2018 12:40

** Bellicum Pharma's shares  BLCM.O  jump ~25.5 pct
premarket, set to more than erase YTD losses of ~19 pct, after
FDA lifts hold on U.S. trials of Co's cancer drug  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1RO5TO 
     ** Stock among top 5 premarket gainers, with vol of ~87k
shares making them the 9th most actively traded stock
    ** Wells Fargo says the rapid resolution of the clinical
hold substantially de-risks BLCM and should position it well for
agreement with FDA on a registration path for BPX501 in the U.S.
    ** Brokerage raises BLCM to "outperform" and boosts PT by
$17 to $23, implying the stock could triple vs its last close
    ** SunTrust Robinson Humphrey now sees a 50 pct chance of
BPX-501 succeeding in the non-malignant setting, up from 40 pct
earlier; also hikes PT to $23
    ** Mean rating of 8 Wall St analysts covering BLCM is
"strong buy" and mean PT is $20

 (Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru)
 ((RM: Shreyashi.Sanyal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))