Noble Capital Markets says micro-cap transplant drugmaker Eledon set to double

Noble Capital Markets has put out a target price for Eledon Pharmaceuticals, a micro-cap maker of a drug to prevent transplant rejection, of $10 per share, more than double the stock’s current market value. The Noble report points out that doctors recently selected Eledon’s experimental drug for use in a pig kidney transplant. Overall, if rejection issues are overcome, genetically modified animal organs could help address the shortage of donor organs.

Noble Capital Markets values Eledon at $10 per share. At the market close yesterday, Eledon traded hands for $4.52 per share, meaning the Noble target price implies upside of 121%.

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital used tegoprubart, an experimental drug made by Eledon, to prevent rejection in a patient who received a genetically modified pig kidney. The standard treatment is tacrolimus, so the choice of tegoprubart is a positive signal that likely reflects its greater efficacy, Noble says.

Eledon currently has five analyst ratings, all of them “buys,” according to MarketWatch. The average target price is $10.50 per share, for upside of 132% versus the last closing price.

Eledon considers its mission as significantly improving the longevity of the organ and the overall health and quality of life of transplant recipients. A transplanted kidney currently lasts 10-15 years, after which the patient goes back on dialysis. The median survival for heart transplant recipients is only 11 years, meaning half of them do not survive beyond that time frame.

Tegoprubart is Eledon’s leading drug candidate. The company is researching its use for kidney, liver, and pancreatic islet cell transplants, xenotransplantation of kidneys and hearts, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

There are currently 100,000 people on the U.S. kidney transplant waiting list, and many will die before receiving an organ, Noble writes. Xenotransplantation could offer a solution. The research firm Global Market Insights expects this market to grow to $29.9 billion by 2032, from $12.7 billion in 2022.

Scientists first successfully genetically modified an animal to closely resemble human biology in 2017. This was accomplished by eGenesis, the company that was Eledon’s partner for the pig kidney xenotransplantation. However, preventing transplant rejection remains the biggest challenge, according to Noble. The first-ever pig heart transplant was performed in 2022, but the patient survived for just two months. A second xenotransplantation took place in 2023, with Eledon’s drug used to prevent rejection. Tegoprubart has thus far enabled the longest survival period in such cases, which leads Noble to believe that xenotransplantation could soon become standard practice.