June 1, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
You can make a fortune on biopharma stocks, but you can lose money, too. Volatility is the key word here. That said, Jon Ogg, writing for 24/7 Wall Street, looks at seven biopharma stocks that have the potential to double or more in value this year.
Based in Cambridge, Mass., Dicerna Pharmaceuticals focuses on rare disease, chronic liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and viral liver infectious diseases. The company utilizes gene silencing technology. What appears to have Ogg optimistic is the company’s GalXC drug candidates that are in preclinical studies. A recent financing has given the company operating funds into 2019.
Dicerna is currently trading for $3.13.
Headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Penn., Inovio Pharmaceuticals focuses on immune-oncology and infectious diseases. The company recently reported that its HIV vaccine, PENNVAX-GP, had excellent preliminary results in a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) supported study.
Inovio is currently trading for $7.59.
Based in San Diego, MEI Pharma is an oncology company. On May 31, the company announced that an independent Safety Review Committee completed its review of the first cohort of a Phase Ib study of its ME-401 for relapsed refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and follicular lymphoma and gave it a positive review.
MEI Pharma is currently trading for $2.17.
Headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., Protagonist Therapeutics announced on May 30 that it had inked a worldwide license and collaboration deal with Janssen Biotech , one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson . The two companies will co-develop and commercialize PTG-200, a first-in-class, oral peptide IL-23 receptor antagonist for all indications including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It’s expected to start Phase I clinical trials in the second half of this year.
Protagonist Therapeutics is currently trading for $10.63.
Based in Watertown, Mass., pSivida Corp focuses on miniaturized, sustained-release drug delivery products. Ogg writes, “The big upside calls came after pSivida showed that a single injection of Durasert reduced the frequency of disease recurrence, improved visual acuity and reduced systemic therapy usage, with low changes in IOP and cataract incidence. This stock is no stranger to volatility, and it has a mere $91 million market value.”
pSivida is currently trading for $2.29.
Headquartered in Waltham, Mass., Radius Health announced on May 24 top-line results from the completed 24 month ACTIVExtend clinical trial. It met all primary and secondary endpoints. The study evaluated patients who had completed 18 months of TYMLOS (abaloparatide) injections or placebo in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
Radius Health is currently trading for $34.93.
Located in Richmond, Calif., Sangamo Therapeutics announced on May 16 that the FDA had granted its SB-525 Fast Track designation. SB-525 is the company’s cDNA gene therapy candidate for hemophilia A. It had previously received Orphan Drug designation. The FDA cleared an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the program and the Phase I/II clinical trial is expected to open and start screening subjects by the end of the second quarter 2017. Data is expected in late 2017 and early 2018.
Sangamo Therapeutics is currently trading for $7.01.
Ogg writes, “Investors in the biotech and biohealth space have to understand that they are taking on much more risk than with most Dow and S&P 500 stocks. That means they will demand more potential upside for that risk. After all, there is often a viability risk on top of just drug price risks and regulation or oversight risks. What is common among these speculative companies for exponential upside potential is that they are somewhat unknown and they all have market capitalizations of far less than $1 billion—and some are even in the micro-cap class with a value of under $100 million.”
