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It’s time to buy shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals , according to Citi. The firm upgraded the stock on Monday to buy from neutral and raised its price target to $60 from $36. Citi’s new forecast now implies more than 50% upside from Friday’s close. The company is best known for its RNA-based therapeutics. Analyst David Lebowitz highlighted several key developments from the Ionis, including eplontersen — a medicine developed with AstraZeneca to treat amyloid transthyretin (ATTR) — as well as donidalorsen, a treatment for hereditary angioedema , which is currently expected to produce phase 3 test results in the first half of 2024. Phase 3 drug testing typically measures a given medication against an already proven treatment on the market. “Though HAE is a competitive market, Phase II data hints that it could have an attractive product profile and be a meaningful player,” Lebowitz said. “Notably, donidalorsen is wholly owned by Ionis. Given current valuation, we view the risk-reward on Ionis shares as being skewed positive.” Lebowitz also highlighted donidalorsen’s phase 2 test performance, which underpinned the stock upgrade. “Overall, donidalorsen appears to have a competitive profile, which should allow the therapy to carve out a meaningful market share, despite the competition,” he said. Ionis has climbed more than 6% this year. It gained more than 1% on Monday. IONS YTD mountain Ionis year to date — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
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