Piper says Mirati now ‘prime’ biotech takeout candidate, boosts target

Piper Sandler analyst Tyler Van Buren raised the firm’s price target on Mirati Therapeutics to $260 from $210 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The stock closed Wednesday up 6% to $234.68. Mirati shares are trading like the company is going to be acquired, and “rightfully so” as adagrasib appears to be the best-in-class KRAS G12C, Van Buren tells investors in a research note. The analyst has a high level of confidence in adagrasib’s approvability and its potential to take a “majority share” of the $5B-plus KRAS G12C market. Most large pharma companies that play in the solid tumor/targeted oncology area are interested in an asset like adagrasib and an acquisition “could come in the very near future,” says Van Buren. He thinks Mirati Therapeutics has become the “prime biotech takeout candidate.”