Analysts at Oppenheimer downgraded ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORIC) to perform from outperform following ORIC-101 discontinuation, which resulted in a share price decline of more than 32% Tuesday afternoon.

While the analysts don't view the discontinuation decision as necessarily surprising and previously focused much of their attention on ORIC-114 exon 20 program, with no material news flow until the first half of 2023, the analysts expect shares to trade in line with the broader biotech market for the balance of 2022.

Of the company’s three programs (944, 533, and 114), the analysts continue to view the upside/downside of ORIC-114 as particularly attractive based on a well-worn path for CNS penetrant precision oncology compounds against clinically-validated targets.

While the analysts believe the company continues to have solid management and a differentiated pipeline of early-stage precision oncology assets, following the discontinuation of ORIC-101 they expect limited news flow for the balance for 2022.