Jones sees Anavex as 'clear M&A target' after Alzheimer's drug's trial success
Fabrice Cabaud

Anavex Life Sciences (NASDAQ:AVXL) stock rose ~62% premarket after its oral drug ANAVEX2-73 (blarcamesine) met the main goal of a phase 2B/3 trial in patients with early Alzheimer's disease, which led Jones Research to double its price target on the shares to $80 while reiterating a Buy rating.
Jones believes that as market takes in the data, Anavex will "come out as a clear M&A target." However, the firm still needs more details on the data.
Earlier in the day, Anavex reported results which showed that ANAVEX2-73 (blarcamesine) met the main goals of ADAS-Cog (a measure of several cognitive domains) and ADCS-ADL (a test of basic and instrumental activities of daily living) with statistically significant results.
Jones noted that there was a clear win shown by ADAS-Cog, as ANAVEX2-73 slowed cognitive decline by 45% at 11 months, versus 27% at 18 months for Biogen (BIIB) and Eisai's (OTCPK:ESALF) (OTCPK:ESALY) drug lecanemab.
On Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), ANAVEX2-73 showed 27% at 11 months, versus 18 months for lecanemab.
In addition, Anavex drug showed a good safety profile with no concerns on brain edema (swelling of brain), versus ~13% for brain swelling and 17% for brain bleeding for lecanemab.
AVXL +61.78% to $14.35 premarket Dec. 2