NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 8, 2015 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced it has issued an update on Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPXA).

The report is available here: OPXA Update Note. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, Capital IQ, FactSet, and Zack's. The report will be available on these platforms. The firm also contributes its estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.

"We see the next twelve months as a critical period for Opexa, with catalysts that could have a significant affect on the company's prospects and its intrinsic value. The most significant of these is that Opexa is approaching the finish line in its high-profile Abili-T Phase 2b clinical trial for Tcelna(R). The release of results from the trial triggers the expiration date of potential Phase 3 partner Merck-Serono's option and license agreement with the company, which, if exercised, has the potential to be highly lucrative for Opexa. Longer term, we believe Opexa will continue to seek to leverage its broad intellectual property (IP) portfolio to develop a proprietary, personalized T-cell immunotherapy platform with the potential to yield treatments for a number of autoimmune diseases, including multiple candidates tailored to each patient's disease profile. As such, we see the company as offering a compelling high risk / high potential reward tradeoff in the healthcare sector. If achieved, the price target of $24.48 represents potential upside of 716% from the recent price of $3.00." stated Ajay Tandon, CEO of SeeThruEquity.

Additional highlights from the update are as follows:

Adjusting price target to reflect split

We are adjusting our price target for Opexa to reflect the 8:1 reverse split, which took place September 29, 2015. Adjusted for the 1:8 share consolidation, the target moves to $24.48. We see the next twelve months as a crucial period for Opexa, with the data from its high profile Phase 2b clinical trial for its lead personalized immunotherapy candidate, Tcelna(R) for SPMS, expected in 2H16E.

Opexa announces 1:8 reverse stock split

On September 28, 2015, Opexa announced that its Board of Directors authorized a 1:8 reverse stock split. Shares began trading on the consolidated split-adjusted basis on September 29, 2015, still under its existing symbol on the NASDAQ Capital Markets: OPXA. Prior to the share consolidation, Opexa had approximately 54.3mn shares outstanding, following shares issued from a recent raise of $0.5mn at $0.55 per share ($4.40 per share split-adjusted), and we have estimated the company now has 6.8mn shares outstanding.

Reverse split likely to satisfy minimum bid requirement

In our view, the move was made to ensure compliance with NASDAQ Capital Market listing standards, and the intrinsic value of the company is unchanged by the announcement. We note that there is a minimum bid requirement for the company to maintain its listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market. To regain compliance with the minimum bid requirement, Opexa shares must close above $1.00 for a minimum of ten consecutive trading days prior to November 30, 2015. With shares closing at $3.00 on October 1, 2015, it seems likely that Opexa will meet this requirement.

Intriguing valuation with potential catalysts on the horizon

We note that Opexa shares appear to offer an intriguing risk / reward tradeoff at recent prices. At the recent price of $3.00 per share, with an estimated 6.8m shares outstanding, Opexa has a market capitalization of $20.4mn. The company ended 2Q15 with cash on hand of $18.3mn and has since raised another $0.5mn in the first tranche of a strategic transaction with the potential to provide the company up to $5mn over the next year to fund the development of OPX-212, its second major clinical platform, using T-Cell technology for the treatment of NMO. This represents an adjusted cash balance of $18.8mn, or $2.77 per share - 92% of the recent price. Thus, Opexa shares trade at a slim margin above the net cash on the company's balance sheet - a compelling valuation, in our view, considering the company has invested approximately $90mn developing its proprietary T-Cell technology platform, and has a key event likely to occur by the end of 2016 - the potentially highly lucrative option held by Merck Serono for rights to Tcelna(R) for MS. The Merck-Serono option and license agreement has the potential could be worth up to $220mn for Opexa in future license and milestone fees, in addition to royalties, if Merck-Serono exercises its option for Tcelna(R) for MS and brings the candidate through to commercialization.

Please review important disclosures on our website at www.seethruequity.com.

About Opexa Therapeutics, Inc.

Opexa is a biopharmaceutical company developing a personalized immunotherapy with the potential to treat major illnesses, including multiple sclerosis (MS) as well as other autoimmune diseases such as neuromyelitis optica (NMO). These therapies are based on Opexa's proprietary T-cell technology. The Company's leading therapy candidate, Tcelna(R), is a personalized T-cell immunotherapy that is in a Phase IIb clinical development program (the Abili-T trial) for the treatment of secondary progressive MS. Tcelna consists of myelin-reactive T-cells, which are expanded ex vivo from the patient's peripheral blood and reintroduced into the patient in an attenuated form via subcutaneous injections. This process triggers a potent immune response against specific subsets of autoreactive T-cells known to attack myelin for each individual patient.

For more information visit the Opexa Therapeutics website at www.opexatherapeutics.com.

About SeeThruEquity

SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for andis unbiased. The company does not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. SeeThruEquity is approved to contribute its research to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks, and distribute its research to its database of opt-in investors. The company also contributes its estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.

For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.

Contact:

Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
info@seethruequity.com

SOURCE: SeeThruEquity