Aravive Inc (ARAV)

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ARAVIVE, INC.: INITIATION OF RESEARCH COVERAGE

William Blair & Company initiated research coverage of Aravive, Inc. (ARAV $5.81), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that leverages deep insights into essential cancer signaling pathways. The company's lead asset AVB-500 completed a Phase Ib study earlier this year, and will soon enter midstage trials in ovarian and kidney cancer.

Analyst Andy Hsieh said, "Aravive's wholly owned asset, AVB-500, targets two large pharmaceutical markets with significant unmet medical need; furthermore, the patient enrichment strategy with a biomarker could provide a competitive moat for the company. AVB-500 perturbs AXL signaling by sequestering the GAS6 ligand; AXL has been implicated in drug resistance, metastasis, and disease progression. In our view, AVB-500 acts as a ‘trap' for the GAS6 ligand, thereby disrupting its interaction with the AXL receptor, which ultimately results in the abrogation of the downstream AXL signaling axis. According to scientific literature, GAS6 is the sole ligand for AXL and their interactions promote cancer cell proliferation, survival, and migration. Aravive optimized AVB-500 to bind to GAS6 at 200-fold higher affinity compared to AXL, which could provide a broad therapeutic window."

Hsieh continued, "Based on our analysis, the total addressable markets for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and treatment-experienced RCC are $930 million and $1.5 billion, respectively, in the United States, and $540 million and $720 million, respectively, in Europe. In the event that AVB-500 expands into the platinum-sensitive disease setting, the opportunity stands at $1.6 billion in the United States and $1.1 billion in Europe. In both indications, we believe there could be potential upside from longer treatment duration, driven by new modalities and combination regimens that provide significant benefit to patients in the frontline setting."

https://www.williamblair.com/en/News-Items/2020/September/18/Aravive-Inc-Initiation.aspx