Biotech stock Pyxis Oncology (NASDAQ:PYXS) managed to achieve a serious milestone today. It hit a high not seen in 11 months, and it’s all thanks to an unexpected source of support. That support is none other than Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), and it’s helped Pyxis blast up over 48% in Tuesday’s trading session.
Trading volume on Pyxis shares was brisk, reaching above-average levels of volume after word emerged that Pfizer was buying shares hand over fist. Reports noted that Pfizer dropped nearly $5 million into Pyxis, buying around 1.8 million shares of the stock. That came not long after word emerged that Pyxis was looking for good news around its drug, an antibody treatment known as PXY-201, to come out in 2023’s second half, or possibly the first half of 2024.
But that’s not all that’s in the pipe. It’s also set to start dosing trials in PYX-106, which serves as an “Siglec-15-mediated T cell inhibition” system that should help suppress tumors. Since PYX-106 has a long life in a patient’s system, it could offer extended coverage as well. That would let it, reports note, be more effectively combined with other therapies and potentially provide a greater impact throughout.
Interestingly, these gains are actually part of a wider—but much slower—pattern of gains already seen. A look at the last five days of trading for Pyxis shows share prices starting a climb after plateauing, then plateauing a second time before starting an even larger run up.