Glaukos Way Ahead Of The Glaucoma Competition

Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its Buy rating and $41 price target on Glaukos Corp (NYSE: GKOS) after the company reported efficacy data from a three-year international study of two iStent devices in over 100 devices. Elaborating on the trial and results, the firm's analyst Elemer Piros noted that patients in the trail were randomized to receive two iStents or a daily dose of travoprost, an eye drop.

Three other noteworthy takeaways include:

• The Stent group saw their intraocular pressure reduce by 43 percent compared to 39 percent for travoprost-treated patients.
• Only 11 percent of the Stent group needed additional medications versus 23 percent for travoprost-treated patients.
• 62 percent of patients in the Stent group could achieve an ideal less than or equal to 15 mmHg IOP at three years versus 21 percent for travoprost-treated patients.

Leaving Competition Behind

Cantor Fitzgerald noted that Glaukos is way ahead of competition, being armed with such longitudinal data and orders of magnitude more literature. Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE: NVS)'s Alcon subsidiary, though having got approval for its Stent in July, cannot easily generate the type of evidence Glaukos has at this stage.

Related Link: Novartis A Buy At Chardan

The firm also noted that it took Glaukos three years to put a 90 percent reimbursement in place and for any competitor, it could take as many years. That would give Glaukos a three-year lead time.

Building On The Lead

Cantor Fitzgerald estimates that the company could sell 100,000 devices this year and could double the numbers in three years. Additionally, the company's iStent Inject, which delivers two stents in one procedure, may be ready for marketing, giving it a further advance in the lead.

Accordingly, the firm believes Glaukos can easily surpass its conservative revenue estimate for $28 million for the third quarter.

Shares of Glaukos were up about 1.4 percent to $39.50 at time of writing.

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