BTIG analyst Thomas Shrader initiated Verona Pharma with a Buy rating and a price target of $17, citing the company's development of RPL554 for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which he sees as an "enormous and underserved market of about 16M patients in the U.S." The analyst states that while the market for COPD treatment is "crowded with bronchodilators", he sees Verona Phama's "highly active and patient-friendly anti-inflammatory drug like RPL554" as an important advance and looks ahead to its pivotal trial study that may begin later this year.