It's been a rough Friday for enGene Therapeutics (ENGN). The stock is down more than 80% since Thursday, when the company released updated interim results from its Phase 2 LEGEND trial for detalimogene, a treatment for high-risk, BCG-unresponsive bladder cancer. The sell-off accelerated Friday morning as a wave of analyst downgrades hit the wires.
So what went wrong? The trial data showed a 54% complete response (CR) rate at any time as of April 21. That sounds decent, but the durability numbers are where things get sticky. The Kaplan-Meier estimate for the 12-month CR rate was just 25%. And among the 32 most recent patients, the six-month CR rate was only 32% — lower than earlier reports had suggested.
Wall Street didn't waste any time reacting. Wells Fargo downgraded ENGN from Overweight to Equal-Weight, and analyst Zhu slashed the price target from $25 to $2 — a brutal cut. Piper Sandler followed suit, downgrading to Neutral and lowering its target from $7 to $4. Guggenheim moved from Buy to Neutral, and Citizens downgraded to Market Perform. Even HC Wainwright & Co., which maintained a Buy rating, slashed its price target from $25 to $6.
CEO Ron Cooper tried to calm the waters, saying, "While durability outcomes to date are not what we hoped, these data are preliminary." The company plans to provide another update in the second half of 2026. But for now, investors are voting with their feet. At the time of publication Friday, shares were down 5.81% to $1.62, according to market data.
The big question is whether detalimogene can show better durability in future data. For a biotech stock, it's all about the next update.
