Leerink analyst Marc Goodman started AC Immune with an Outperform and $18 price target as he initiates Neuroscience space with a Positive View. The analyst believes the Neuroscience sector is experiencing a "renaissance" as multiple new agents and mechanisms are coming up the pipeline across major therapeutic areas, the number of clinical studies is growing nicely, and the FDA is friendly to innovation in this space, companies are getting smarter about speed-to-market strategies and selecting niche sub-populations to focus on for initial product approvals, payer pushback on usage is much lower than in other categories, and physicians are enthusiastic about new agents. Regarding AC Immune, Goodman notes that it has a diversified pipeline of drug candidates and diagnostics for Alzheimer's disease led by a late stage antibody with crenezumab, and has strong partners with Roche (RHHBY) for crenezumab, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) for Anti-Tau vaccine, Biogen (BIIB) for alphasynuclein-PET tracer diagnostic, and Piramal for TauPET tracer diagnostic.