Estrella Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ESLA) Receives Buy Rating With a Price Target of $14.00 From CB Capital Partners

By: Estrella Immunopharma, Inc. via Business Wire

March 05, 2025 at 08:00 AM EST

Estrella Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ESLA) (“Estrella” or the “Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing CD19 and CD22-targeted ARTEMIS^® T-cell therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, today announced that CB Capital Partners has initiated coverage on the Company with a Buy rating and a price target of $14.00.

“We appreciate CB Capital’s detailed evaluation of our proprietary ARTEMIS^® T-cell platform and the progress we have made with EB103,” said Dr. Cheng Liu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Estrella. “Their report highlights the unique attributes of our approach to T-cell therapy and underscores the potential for our pipeline to deliver transformative treatments to cancer patients.”

Key Insights from CB Capital’s Report:

Superior Safety and Efficacy:

The Company’s proprietary ARTEMIS^® platform is engineered to overcome limitations of traditional CAR-T therapies by enhancing T-cell persistence, tumor specificity, and overall safety. Clinical data for EB103 have shown high response rates with no severe cytokine release syndrome (CRS) or immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), positioning EB103 as a best-in-class therapy for hematological malignancies.
Expanded Patient Access:

EB103 addresses a significant unmet need by extending treatment to high-risk non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients—including those with HIV-associated and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma—who are often excluded from existing therapies. Its favorable safety profile and reduced toxicity increase the potential for wider adoptions beyond specialized centers, making life-saving immunotherapy more accessible to underserved patient populations.
Strong Strategic Appeal:

The innovative design and clinical potential of the ARTEMIS^® platform position Estrella as an attractive candidate for strategic investment, licensing, or acquisition. The potential of expedited regulatory pathways and orphan drug designations further bolster the Company’s long-term investment appeal.

The Company previously entered into an engagement agreement with CB Capital Partners in which CB Capital Partners will serve as financial advisor in connection with the preparation of an Initiation Research Report (the “Report”) and will conduct an independent analysis of Estrella’s business model, financial outlook and market positioning. The Report will, among other things, provide a comprehensive review of Estrella’s corporate history, strategic objectives, financial projections, and industry comparables.

A copy of CB Capital Partners’ research report can be accessed directly from CB Capital Partners or its affiliated research platform.

The price target and rating referenced herein were assigned by CB Capital Partners and represent its independent opinion of the Company’s securities. The Company does not endorse or affirm the accuracy or conclusions of the analyst’s report. A rating is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities, and each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating. Price targets are subject to inherent market risks, macroeconomic factors and future developments that may cause actual results to differ materially. Investors should not place undue reliance on any price target or analyst report, and such information should be considered alongside other available financial and market information.

About CB Capital

Founded in 2001, CB Capital Partners was formed with a focus on delivering investment banking services to companies seeking to profit from the opportunities that emerge during inevitable changes in the business cycle. In 2001, the firm was launched to advise and lead companies through periods of disruptive change. Chris Baclawski (Goldman Sachs and CB Richard Ellis Investors) launched the firm. The firm’s West Coast team brings decades of transactional expertise and a deep understanding of market dynamics to support clients in achieving their strategic and financial goals. The professionals at firm have leveraged their business acumen and network to guide clients to successful financing and mergers and acquisitions engagements structured to maximize value over the term of the investment. The firm’s experienced professionals help clients analyze financial alternatives, identify strategic and financial sources of capital, and structure and negotiate terms, which meet their objectives.

About EB103

EB103, a T-cell therapy, also referred to as Estrella’s “CD19-Redirected ARTEMIS^® T-Cell Therapy,” utilizes ARTEMIS^® technology licensed from Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. (“Eureka”), Estrella’s parent company. Unlike a traditional CAR-T cell, the unique design of an ARTEMIS^® T-Cell, like EB103 T-cell, allows it to be activated and regulated upon engagement with cancer targets that use cellular mechanisms more closely resembling those triggered by endogenous T-cell receptors. Once infused, EB103 T-cells seek out CD19-positive cancer cells, bind to these cells, and destroy them.

About Estrella Immunopharma, Inc.

Estrella is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing CD19 and CD22-targeted ARTEMIS^® T-cell therapies to treat cancers and autoimmune diseases. Estrella’s mission is to harness the evolutionary power of the human immune system to transform the lives of patients fighting cancer and other diseases. To accomplish this mission, Estrella’s lead product candidate, EB103, utilizes Eureka’s ARTEMIS^® technology to target CD19, a protein expressed on the surface of almost all B-cell leukemias and lymphomas. Estrella is also developing EB104, which also utilizes Eureka’s ARTEMIS^® technology to target not only CD19, but also CD22, a protein that, like CD19, is expressed on the surface of most B-cell malignancies.

For more information about Estrella, please visit www.estrellabio.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, including but not limited to those regarding the potential benefits and therapeutic advantages of EB103 and ARTEMIS® T-cell therapy, the potential for EB103 to address limitations of current commercially available CAR-T therapies, and the future development plans for EB103, are based on our management’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate and our management’s current beliefs and assumptions. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking expressions, including, but not limited to, “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These statements relate to future events or our financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.