Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RLAY) is up ~5% in premarket trading after Stifel and HC Wainwright issued bullish notes on the stock following promising interim data on a breast cancer asset.
Those results found that heavily pretreated patients who were given RLY-2608 + AstraZeneca’s (AZN) Faslodex (fulvestrant) had a 9.2-month median progression-free survival. The company calls the candidate the “first known investigational allosteric, pan-mutant and isoform-selective inhibitor of PI3Kα.”
There was also a 33% objective response rate across all patients given the treatment, with the figure at 53% for patients with kinase mutations at RP2D.
Relay plans on initiating a pivotal study for RLY-2608 as a second-line treatment for PI3Kα-mutated, HR+/HER- metastatic breast cancer in 2025.
Stifel’s Bradley Canino, who has a buy rating and $28 price target (~268% upside) said that the upcoming trial is “a blockbuster opportunity, with highly supportive and robust phase 1b data.”
“We think the Street will begin to recognize and value the significant ~18-month competitive lead established by RLAY for 2L breast, the strong balance sheet, and optionality from RLY-2608 triplet dose-escalation development and expansion into vascular malformations over 2026,” he added.
H.C. Wainwright’s Robert Burns, who also rates Relay a buy, raised his price target to $19 from $18 (~150% return). He boosted the probability of RLY-2608 second-line approval to 60% from 25% prior.