Bayer's Prostate-Cancer Data Hold Up, but Two Banks Read the Same Numbers Very Differently
Published on 10/27/2026 at 15:51 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Bayer shares slipped 1.3% to €45.07 on Wednesday, giving back part of the previous session's 3.9% advance that had lifted the stock to a close of €45.65. The pullback came a day after two pieces of pharmaceutical news — a positive interim readout for Nubeqa and a Chinese approval for Asundexian — drew sharply divergent verdicts from two of the banks covering the German group.
JPMorgan's Richard Vosser kept an "Overweight" rating and a €61 price target, calling the DASL-HiCaP study data a further growth driver for Nubeqa. Jefferies' Michael Leuchten, by contrast, stuck with "Hold" and a €46 target, describing the darolutamide results as promising but framing them as confirmation of the existing story rather than a fundamental shift.
What the DASL-HiCaP Interim Analysis Showed
The Phase III data, presented Saturday at the ESMO congress, cover prostate-cancer patients at high risk of recurrence. According to Bayer, darolutamide added to androgen deprivation therapy and radiotherapy cut the combined risk of metastases or death by 58% versus placebo. The analysis rests on a median follow-up of 3.8 years, and the comparison is between the full darolutamide regimen and placebo given alongside the same ADT and radiotherapy backbone.
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At four years, the metastasis-free survival rate stood at 95% in the darolutamide arm against 88% in the control group. Bayer has not yet secured approval for darolutamide in this treatment setting.
A Separate Win in China
Bayer also reported Chinese approval for Asundexian, marketed there as Sunharbo, granted under an accelerated review. The NMPA decision covers reducing stroke risk in adults following a non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke or high-risk TIA. Bayer bills the compound as the world's first approved factor XIa inhibitor.
Earlier Signals From the Kidney Franchise
The week's news flow began on Thursday, when Bayer flagged new subgroup analyses from the Phase III FIND-CKD trial. Per the company, finerenone showed consistent effects on UPCR and UACR reduction as well as on kidney-function decline in chronic kidney disease patients without diabetes.
The Next Hard Date
Investors get the next concrete checkpoint on 3 November, when Bayer publishes its Q3 2026 quarterly statement at 7:30 a.m. CET. An investor video call is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CET that day.
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