Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) tumbled Tuesday, hitting a low of $38.25 per share. While the reason for the decline wasn't clear, some speculated it could be tied to comments from analysts at Mizuho.

In a note to clients, the analysts at Mizuho said that based on their look yesterday (April 29) at the FAERS safety database that was updated as of March 31, 2024, they "found 73 additional serious AEs, including 10 additional cases of retinal vasculitis/RV, and 2 deaths for APLS' Syfovre, and this compares to 16 additional serious AEs, including 0 additional cases of retinal vasculitis/RV, and 0 deaths for Astellas Pharma's Izervay."

"Overall, while acknowledging that it's still relatively early days, in our view, the safety profiles for the two competitor drugs appear differentiated from one another, with Izervay thus far having the advantage. As such, we maintain our Neutral rating on APLS," they added.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, analysts at JPMorgan reiterated an Overweight rating and $79 price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals. The bank stated that the "2 deaths being speculated on the Street are NOT related to Syfovre (died of natural cases / patients are elderly)."

"As we noted above, the FAERS database is NOT verified and highlighted duplicate counting (many cases are categorized as non-serious / some as unrelated to drug). Cautioned comparing AE rates with Izervay, given differences in number of injections," said JPMorgan.