Cantargia: Update PDAC (pot. at ASCO) could trigger sentiment recovery

We initiated coverage on Cantargia just a few weeks after seeing the share price taking a hard hit following a phase III failure of competitor Novartis.

We see limited read-through to Cantargia and deem the sell-off overdone, asi) lead compound CAN04 has a broader mode of action compared to Novartis'canakinumab, and ii) the setting where Novartis failed (2L/3L NSCLC) is are cognizable difficult indication, currently not key to the CAN04 story.

In our view,the main indication for CAN04 is 1L PDAC, where we see a straight path forward backed by encouraging interim phase II data showing that a combination with GA in1L PDAC resulted in partial responses in 8/20 patients (40% ORR).

Updated results (incl. more patients, PFS, DOR, biomarkers) are expected in H1'21 (pot. at ASCO).These results will not only be used to design a pivotal phase III trial, but we alsobelieve meaningful PFS and/or DOR (historically in this setting ~23% ORR, mOS8.5m, mPFS 5.5m) could trigger the stock to make up lost ground.