Shares of biotech company PepGen soared nearly 100%. Wall Street sees even greater potential

Shares of biotech company PepGen soared 93% on November 10 after the company reported strong results from a mid-stage trial of its experimental treatment for a form of muscular atrophy. In this field, the biotech company is competing with pharmaceutical giant Novartis, whose research has failed. Wall Street believes PepGen’s stock could rise by more than 175%.

PepGen's stock rose 93% on the Nasdaq on November 10, reaching $4.6. This is the highest price since late March 2026.

Investors reacted to the strong results from the mid-phase clinical trials of the PGN-EDODM1 therapy, which the company tested on patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1. This is an inherited disorder in which muscles have difficulty relaxing after contraction and, over time, weaken and atrophy.

According to the test results, the average splicing correction in the muscles of patients who received the experimental drug reached 46.5%—the highest rate ever recorded with repeated administration of the drug, according to the press release.

This means that the drug reverses the underlying molecular damage inside muscle cells, explains Barron ’s . By releasing essential proteins that had been blocked by toxic RNA, patients’ cells can once again produce healthy adult muscle proteins instead of defective ones. In patients in the placebo group, the average splicing correction was 6.8%.

Biotech also noted improvements in other measures: grip strength, results from the 10-meter walk or run test, and hand-opening time.

PepGen is not the only company developing a treatment for myotonic dystrophy type 1. For example, a drug from Dyne Therapeutics is in the final phase of clinical trials, while Novartis’s drug for the same condition failed to meet the primary endpoint of its Phase 3 trial in September.

At the same time, the average splicing correction rate for PGN-EDODM1 exceeded that of the drugs from these two competitors, wrote Leerink Partners analyst Joseph Schwartz (as reported by BioPharma Dive). The result also exceeded the 30% benchmark cited by HC Wainwright analyst Ananda Ghosh, according to a Barron’s article.

This means that PepGen could become the best-in-class drug, according to Schwartz, though he notes that comparing results across different trials is an imperfect method.

Oppenheimer analyst Kostas Biliouris believes that the results represent the “best-case scenario” for the biotech sector.

Wall Street generally views the company's prospects positively: its stock has seven "buy" recommendations from analysts and one "hold" recommendation. The average price target is $12.75, which is 176% higher than the most recent closing price.