Crispr Therapeutics shares tumble after significant earnings miss
Investing.com - William Blair downgraded Jasper Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JSPR) from Outperform to Market Perform on Monday following complications in the company’s clinical trials for briquilimab. The stock, which has seen a -68% year-to-date return according to InvestingPro data, trades at $3.09, significantly below its 52-week high of $26.05.
The downgrade comes after Jasper disclosed that some multi-dose cohorts in its BEACON study for chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) were affected by an inactive drug product lot, confounding results and necessitating re-dosing and additional patient enrollment. Despite recent setbacks, InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock is currently undervalued, with 12 additional ProTips available for subscribers.
The manufacturing issue has delayed the company’s pivotal Phase IIb study initiation until mid-2026 and forced Jasper to halt development of briquilimab in asthma, as the same inactive drug lot was used in its ETESIAN asthma challenge study.
Jasper also announced it is discontinuing development in genetic diseases to focus resources on the CSU program, representing a significant narrowing of its pipeline.
Despite these setbacks, William Blair noted positive data from the open-label extension study, where the 180 mg Q8W dose showed strong efficacy with 73% of patients achieving a complete response at week 12, suggesting potential competitive positioning against other treatments if development proceeds successfully.
In other recent news, Jasper Therapeutics has encountered significant challenges in its clinical trials due to manufacturing issues. The company reported that a problematic drug product lot affected the results of its BEACON Phase 1b/2a study for briquilimab in chronic spontaneous urticaria, requiring the enrollment of additional patients and delaying the data readout to the fourth quarter of 2025. This setback also led to the halting of the ETESIAN asthma trial and discontinuation of development in severe combined immunodeficiency. Despite these issues, Jasper Therapeutics presented promising data at the EAACI conference, showing that the 180 mg dose of briquilimab achieved a 92% complete response rate in chronic inducible urticaria patients. H.C. Wainwright maintained a Buy rating on Jasper, though it lowered the price target from $40 to $20, citing delays in the company’s CSU program. The firm also highlighted Jasper’s cost-cutting measures, which include pausing some development programs to extend its cash runway. Jasper expects the need to raise additional capital by the fourth quarter of 2025. However, no grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events were reported in the ongoing studies.
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