What happened
Shares of the clinical-stage eye disease specialist Kodiak Sciences (KOD -1.20%) are trending lower on higher-than-normal volume today. Specifically, the biotech's stock price fell by as much as 10% in early morning action on Tuesday, and it was still down by a noteworthy 8.8% as of 10:52 a.m. ET.
By contrast, the morning session has so far been a fairly good outing for biotech stocks at large. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, for instance, was up by a respectable 2.26% at the time of this writing.
So what
Kodiak's stock is under pressure this morning in response to a downgrade from an analyst at Citigroup. The analyst, Neena Bitritto-Garg, downgraded the biotech's stock to sell from neutral. Bitritto-Garg is concerned about the prospects of Kodiak's ongoing late-stage trial for KSI-301 as a possible therapy for treatment-naïve retinal vein occlusion.
Per the company's last update, the study's top-line data are expected to drop this month. Earlier this year, KSI-301 missed the mark in a phase 2/3 trial as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration. As a direct result of this high-profile clinical failure, Kodiak's stock price has fallen by nearly 90% this year.
Now what
Is Kodiak's stock a contrarian buy following this downbeat note from Citigroup? Probably not. Kodiak's lead drug candidate has yet to prove itself in a late-stage trial, and until it does, investors are arguably best served by simply watching this story unfold from the sidelines.
