New York, May 21, 2026, 09:19 (EDT)
Shares of Bright Minds Biosciences Inc. closed sharply higher on Wednesday after Piper Sandler raised its price target on the drug developer, giving DRUG a fresh test heading into Thursday’s U.S. session. The Nasdaq-listed stock finished at $82.78, up 11.1% from Tuesday’s close of $74.54.
That matters now because regular U.S. trading had not yet opened at the dateline. Nasdaq’s core session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern, with pre-market trading before that, so Wednesday’s close was still the last settled reference point.
Piper Sandler raised its target on Bright Minds to $220 from $190 and kept an “Overweight” rating, a Wall Street term that usually means the analyst expects the stock to do better than peers or a benchmark. The Fly reported that Piper “remains bullish” after discussions with management following earnings, citing progress across programs. TipRanks
Piper Sandler’s Yasmeen Rahimi is the named Piper analyst in Bright Minds’ analyst-coverage list, and Piper’s own profile describes her as a senior biotechnology research analyst whose coverage universe includes DRUG. Bright Minds says opinions and forecasts from listed analysts are their own, not company views.
The latest company filing gave investors more to trade on. In a May 19 Form 6-K, a U.S. filing used by foreign private issuers, Bright Minds reported cash and cash equivalents of C$309.7 million at March 31, up from C$82.9 million at Sept. 30. Research and development spending rose to C$18.7 million for the six months ended March 31 from C$3.6 million a year earlier, while the net loss widened to C$18.0 million from C$2.9 million.
The filing also updated the pipeline. It said BMB-101, the company’s lead 5-HT2C agonist — a drug designed to activate a serotonin-linked receptor in the brain — had completed Phase 1 testing and reported Phase 2 topline data in January for developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, or DEE, and absence seizures. Preparatory work was ongoing for future Phase 2/3 epilepsy studies and a Phase 2 study in Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder.
The stronger cash position followed Bright Minds’ January public offering of 1.945 million shares at $90 each, which raised gross proceeds of $175.05 million. The company said at the time that proceeds would fund future clinical trials for absence seizures, DEE and Prader-Willi Syndrome, work on BMB-105, earlier-stage research and general corporate purposes.
The trial backdrop is still the main story. Bright Minds said in January that BMB-101 produced a 73.1% median reduction in absence seizures lasting at least three seconds and a 63.3% median reduction in major motor seizures in the DEE cohort, and that it had begun preparations for global registrational trials, meaning studies intended to support a regulatory filing.
The move came in a firmer tape for biotech and epilepsy-focused names. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF rose 2.2%, while Praxis Precision Medicines gained 4.6% and Xenon Pharmaceuticals added 1.1%; Praxis says its work spans movement disorders and epilepsy, and Xenon has described XEN1101 as part of a Phase 3 epilepsy program.
But the setup can cut both ways. Bright Minds is still a clinical-stage biotech spending more as trials advance, and its own filings warn that more capital may be needed, that equity raises could dilute holders, and that trial or regulatory setbacks could delay programs. The January prospectus also warned that the stock price may be volatile and sensitive to future share sales, low trading volume, study results and analyst changes.
For now, DRUG traders have two numbers in front of them: Piper’s $220 target and Bright Minds’ C$18.7 million six-month R&D bill. Thursday’s open will show whether Wednesday’s analyst-led move holds once the regular Nasdaq session begins.
