RBC initiates coverage of NewAmsterdam on CETP inhibitor
While biotech companies pivot from vaccines to weight loss drugs, a new opportunity could be found in CETP inhibitors — a class of cardiovascular drugs used to maintain cholesterol. RBC Capital Markets Biotechnology Analyst Leonid Timashev discusses the considerations that went into initiating coverage on NewAmsterdam Pharma (NAMS), with an Outperform rating at a $25 price target, over its CETP inhibitor obicetrapib.
"The drug has been in six Phase Two trials, all of which have shown 40-50% reductions in the bad cholesterol," Timashev tells Yahoo Finance, later adding: "We think obicetrapib... can reach over $1 billion in sales in the U.S. and be a multibillion-dollar drug worldwide.
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Video Transcript
BRAD SMITH: The biotech firm New Amsterdam Pharma sees major potential. RBC Capital Markets agrees, saying this drug could succeed where others have failed, representing a multi-billion dollar opportunity. They initiated coverage over at RBC Capital Markets as well on New Amsterdam Pharma with an outperform rating and a $25 price target earlier this month, seeing potential in the firm's cholesterol drug.
Joining us now, we've got Leonid Timashev who is the RBC Capital Markets biotechnology analyst. Take us into your thesis around this and why people's focus should be on New Amsterdam Pharma perhaps.
LEONID TIMASHEV: Great. Well, thanks for having me. A pleasure to be here. I'd love to walk you through New Amsterdam. You know, I think, as you mentioned, biotech's had a tough tape, but as far as biotech company goes, we think that New Amsterdam's actually a pretty straightforward company to understand.
So, as you mentioned, there were a number of CTP inhibitors in the past, many of which have failed, but we have a very good handle on why we think those failed, and we think that Obicetrapib which is New Amsterdam's lead drug, is the best in class molecule. It's more potent, it has better pharmacological properties, and not only does it raise the good cholesterol, as we talked about, but it also reduces the bad cholesterol very meaningfully, and the drug has been in six phase two trials, all of which have shown 40% to 50% reductions in the bad cholesterol.
Now, it's been tried as a monotherapy, it's been tried as a combination with statins, with other drugs, so it's really gone through the wringer of different trials that it can go through, and it's worked and it's been very consistent. And one of the most well-understood character-- correlations in medicine is that lowering the bad cholesterol decreases the rate of heart attack and strokes and negative cardiovascular outcomes. So we feel pretty confident that with this 40% to 50% reduction in the bad cholesterol, New Amsterdam can succeed in a large phase three trial to show a reduction in negative cardiovascular outcomes, and that's going to be coming in the second half of 2026.
And then, just to touch on the unmet need here, I mean, I think you don't need a lot of introduction to know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and in fact, it's the leading cause of death worldwide. Up to 50% of patients can't reach their target cholesterol even when they're on medicine, and so we think that Obicetrapib as a once daily effective and competitively priced pill can reach over $1 billion in sales in the US and be a multi-billion dollar drug worldwide.
