A controversial eye treatment from Apellis can lead to sharp returns for investors, according to JPMorgan. The bank upgraded the biopharmaceutical stock to overweight from neutral and raised its price target to $81 from $60. JPMorgan's new forecast implies more than 104% upside from Thursday's $39.64 close. Shares of Apellis are down more than 23% since the start of the year. The firm has recently garnered controversy as safety issues have arisen regarding its Syfovre injection, which was approved earlier this year. The drug aims to treat an eye disease called geographic atrophy, which, according to the Syfovre website, affects about 1 million people. APLS YTD mountain Apellis ytd chart Analyst Anupam Rama believes that Apellis' overall pipeline has only been strengthened by recent approvals of Syfovre. "Indeed, we view Syfovre as a ~$3B peak potential drug, even with conservative assumptions," he wrote. "With Syfovre growth largely stemming from the back half of 3Q, we see this as a tailwind heading into 4Q and 2024." While safety concerns may have cast Apellis in a negative light, causing a short-term sell-off, Rama thinks the stock is already on the road to recovery. The analyst noted that some physicians who had initially paused treatment of Syfovre have already begun to return to prescribing the injection. "Of note, the company does need to work through physician perception of Syfovre, given recent disclosures of cases of retinal vasculitis and this could take time (there is risk of disclosure of additional headline with more cases)," he said. "That said, physicians continue to use the product driven growth and we anticipate a fundamental and sentiment shift driving upside in APLS shares." — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
