10:25 AM EDT, 09/24/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Sana Biotechnology ( SANA ) has "substantial" long-term growth potential with its lead candidate's ability to potentially avoid immune rejection and its in vivo CAR-T platforms, which hold scarcity value among SMID-cap peers, Wedbush Securities said in a Wednesday note as it initiated coverage of the company's stock.

The company's lead candidate SC451, an off-the-shelf pancreatic islet cell therapy for type 1 diabetes, avoids the immunosuppression required in current approaches, reducing the risk of malignancies and infections while enabling patients to maintain physiologic insulin production and immune protection, Wedbush analysts said.

Further, in vivo generation of CAR-T cells may address the challenges in treating autoimmune diseases of cost, access, and the requirement of intensive lymphodepletion regimens, as seen in current autologous CAR-T approaches. The approach has drawn significant large pharma interest in the past year, they said.

Sana also has other allogeneic candidates in development for B-cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases, offering further growth opportunities, according to the note.

Wedbush initiated coverage of the company's stock with an outperform rating and a price target of $5.

Shares of Sana Biotechnology ( SANA ) were up nearly 6% in recent trading.

Price: 3.45, Change: +0.19, Percent Change: +5.83