April 4, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Biotech stocks are notoriously volatile, which doesn’t mean they aren’t good—and sometimes great—investments. Brian Feroldi, Sean Williams and George Budwell, writing for The Motley Fool, give their picks for best biotech stocks.
Headquartered in New York, NY, TG Therapeutics focuses on acquiring, developing and commercialization treatments for B-cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases. It has two therapies it is developing that target hematological malignancies and autoimmune diseases. TG-1101 (ublituximab) is a monoclonal antibody targeting a specific epitope on the CD20 antigen found on mature B-lymphocytes. TGR-1202 is an orally available PI3K delta inhibitor also being developed for hematological malignancies. TG-1101 is also being evaluated for autoimmune disorders.
George Budwell chose TG, saying, “I’m considering adding the small-cap biotech TG Therapeutics to my portfolio this month because of its outstanding long-term upside potential as an emerging player in the high-value blood cancer market.”
As an example, TG-1101, in a Phase III trial, had an 80 percent overall response rate in combination with AbbVie (ABBV)’s Imbruvica for high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). That’s compared to Imbruvica alone, which had a 47 percent response rate. If approved, peak sales for this one indication could hit several hundred million dollars.
TG Therapeutics is currently trading for $11.05.
Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Alkermes has a lot of promising drugs in its pipeline. One, for example, is ALKS 4230, which recently showed greater anti-tumor efficacy relative to recombinant human IL-2 in lung cancer.
Brian Feroldi writes, “However, what makes Alkermes a compelling biotech stock to buy right now is that it has been developing a few proprietary compounds of its own. The most exciting product in development is ALKS-5461, a drug in Phase III trials aimed at treating major depression. Management is targeting an approval for ALKS-5461 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year, and if all goes well, it could be producing revenue in 2018.”
ALKS-3831 is wrapping up a pivotal study in schizophrenia later this year. And ALKS-8700 is likely to be submitted for approval for multiple sclerosis sometime next year.
Alkermes is currently trading for $57.42.
Based in The Woodlands, Texas, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals utilizes its Genome5000 program, which provides a systematic way to pinpoint potential drug targets. Its Xermelo (telotristat ethyl) was approved by the FDA for carcinoid syndrome diarrhea in combination with somatostatin analog (SSA) therapy. Its sotagliflozin had positive topline results in December 2016 in a Phase III trial in patients with type 1 diabetes. And it launched a Phase I trial of LX2761 for diabetes last year.
Sean Williams picked Lexicon, noting that he generally recommends companies already making a profit, and Lexicon is at least two or three years from that. “However, the real reason to own Lexicon isn’t Xermelo. Instead, it’s the potential for sotagliflozin, a next-generation oral inhibitor of SGLT1 and SGLT2 (glucose transport proteins) for type 1 and 2 diabetes. There are a number of SGLT2 inhibitors already on the market, including Johnson & Johnson’s Invokana and Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance. Rather than working in the liver or pancreas as prior therapies had done, SGLT2 inhibitors block glucose absorption in the kidneys to maintain better glycemic balance. The addition of the SGLT1 inhibitor in sotaglilflozin blocks glucose absorption in the intestines.”
And the trial data has been so promising that Sanofi got in on it with a licensing deal that brought up $300 million up front for Lexicon, with potential development and sales milestones up to $1.4 billion.
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals is currently trading for $14.28.