Baird has adjusted its valuation on Intellia Therapeutics, increasing its price target to $7.00 from $4.00 while keeping a Neutral rating on the stock. The change reflects the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision to lift a clinical hold on Intellia's MAGNITUDE-2 study of nex-z in patients with hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis with polyneuropathy, commonly abbreviated hATTR-PN.
The FDA action removes a regulatory obstacle that had clouded the program's near-term trajectory and allows Intellia to resume enrollment in the Phase 3 trial. The company will increase the trial's enrollment target from approximately 50 to 60 patients and will proceed with protocol modifications and enhanced safety monitoring agreed with the agency.
Intellia's shares reacted favorably to the regulatory update. The stock is trading at $14.95 and has recorded an 8.73% gain over the past week and a 55.17% rise year-to-date, based on InvestingPro data included in the original report. Despite that market response and the removal of uncertainty about whether the MAGNITUDE-2 program would continue, Baird emphasizes that commercial questions around Intellia's programs persist and are likely to limit the potential for further share-price appreciation.
Separately, Intellia disclosed longer-term efficacy signals from an earlier-stage study: durable results from a Phase 1 trial in patients with ATTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy showed a mean serum transthyretin, or TTR, reduction of 87% that was sustained over three years. That finding supports the durability of the mechanism in the Phase 1 population but does not directly resolve commercialization concerns cited by Baird.
Analyst reactions since the clinical developments have been mixed. Jones Trading downgraded Intellia from Buy to Hold following the death of a patient in a clinical trial, noting that details around complicating conditions in that case remain unknown. Evercore ISI also moved to a more cautious stance, lowering its rating from Outperform to In Line and trimming its price target, citing uncertainty around the timeline for the ATTR program even as it acknowledged encouraging efficacy updates.
Baird's price-target increase was made specifically to account for the lifting of the clinical hold, but the firm made no change to its broader view on the stock's risk-reward profile. That posture reflects a focus on the commercial outlook and the view that regulatory progress, while necessary, does not by itself resolve market and reimbursement questions that will influence ultimate adoption and revenue potential.
The recent sequence of events underscores a mix of clinical progress and programmatic uncertainty for Intellia. The FDA's clearance to resume are meaningful from a development perspective, and long-term biomarker reductions in the Phase 1 cohort are notable. At the same time, analyst downgrades tied to a patient death and timeline ambiguity highlight ongoing safety and execution risks that market participants will monitor as the company moves forward with the revised MAGNITUDE-2 design and expanded enrollment.