Citigroup: Maintains "Buy/High Risk" Rating on INSILICO (03696) with a Target Price of HK$85

Citi has released a research report stating that, based on a discounted cash flow framework, it maintains a target price of HKD 85 and a "Buy/High Risk" rating for INSILICO (03696). INSILICO remains the preferred choice in the banks Artificial Intelligence Drug Discovery (AIDD) sub-sector. Regarding INSILICO's announcement of research related to Rentosertib, the findings positively validate the company's discovery approach centered around aging biology, further highlighting the differentiated advantages of its leading assets. Six independently developed aging clocks have shown consistent signals, potentially expanding the scientific relevance of Rentosertib into the field of geroscience and enhancing its attractiveness for collaboration. This is the first evidence of direct clinical biomarkers linking Rentosertib to potential biological age reversal, moving beyond previous communications that primarily focused on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and anti-fibrotic efficacy. The bank believes this presents substantial upside potential for platform visibility and pipeline selection; however, the findings remain exploratory, based on a small dataset, and have not proven lifespan extension nor are they a registered endpoint. On September 7, INSILICO announced a study published in Nature Biotechnology analyzing 2,841 serum proteins from 42 IPF patients in a Phase 2 trial of Rentosertib. All six independently developed proteomic aging clocks indicated that, relative to the placebo, biological age was predicted to be younger. The strongest signals appeared in the fourth week in the 30 mg twice-daily group, approximately reducing biological age by three to four years, with one clock even reaching six years. Compared to 55,319 UK Biobank profiles, an age-associated protein expression pattern was also shown to be reversed. Notably, the dosage that produced the strongest age reversal signal was different from that which resulted in the greatest improvement in forced vital capacity (FVC), suggesting that the effects may extend beyond improvements in lung function alone. INSILICO plans to conduct similar analyses on at least half of its pipeline.