Biotech Alert: Searches spiking for these stocks today

These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include: 

• Apellis Pharmaceuticals (APLS), 985% surge in interest
• Argenx (ARGX), 421% surge in interest
• BridgeBio (BBIO), 286% surge in interest
• Biomarin (BMRN), 263% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Apellis Pharmaceuticals says the company “ushered in the first new class of complement medicine in 15 years” with the approval of the first and only targeted C3 therapy. Apellis is advancing this science to “continually develop transformative medicines for people living with rare, retinal, and neurological diseases,” it stated.

Argenx is an immunology company that says it is “committed to improving the lives of people suffering from severe autoimmune diseases” and “aims to translate immunology breakthroughs into a world-class portfolio of novel antibody-based medicines.” Argenx developed and is commercializing what it calls “the first-and-only approved neonatal Fc receptor blocker in the U.S., the EU and UK, and Japan.” The company is evaluating efgartigimod in multiple autoimmune diseases and advancing several earlier stage experimental medicines within its therapeutic franchises.

BridgeBio Pharma is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company founded to discover, create, test and deliver transformative medicines to treat patients who suffer from genetic diseases and cancers with clear genetic drivers. BridgeBio’s pipeline of development programs ranges from early science to advanced clinical trials, the company has stated.

BioMarin is focused on therapies for people with serious and life-threatening genetic diseases and medical conditions. The company’s portfolio consists of eight commercial products and multiple clinical and preclinical product candidates for the treatment of various diseases.

Recent news on these stocks:

July 17

The American Society of Retina Specialists’ Research and Safety in Therapeutics Committee distributed a notification to its members on Saturday indicating that six cases of occlusive retinal vasculitis have been observed since Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ Syfovre launched and all events were observed after the first injection, between 7-13 days post injection, Raymond James tells investors in a research note. No specific product lots were implicated and the communication indicated 60,000 vials of Syfovre have been distributed since FDA approval, adds the analyst. Shares of Apellis are down 37% to $53.02 in premarket trading. The firm spoke with Apellis management who confirmed the details. Occlusive retinal vasculitis will likely “cause investors PTSD given Beovu and likely (and rightfully) be *the* bear case going forward,” said Raymond James. It says the bear case can only be refuted by continued uptake along with conclusions from continued analysis of cases affirming a possible connection with infectious endophthalmitis. The firm noted the launch “so far is going amazing.” It adds that a retinal vasculitis event rate of one in 10,000 is way less than Beovu and shouldn’t impair Syfovre’s prospects. Raymond James kept a Strong Buy rating on Apellis Pharmaceuticals.

argenx SE announced that it has commenced a global offering of $750M of ordinary shares, which may be represented by American Depository Shares, or ADSs. The global offering will be comprised of an offering of ordinary shares represented by ADSs in the United States and certain other countries outside of the European Economic Area and a simultaneous private placement of ordinary shares in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. Each of the ADSs represents the right to receive one ordinary share. The U.S. offering and the European private placement are expected to close simultaneously. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, BofA Securities and TD Cowen are acting as joint bookrunning managers for the offering. Van Lanschot Kempen is acting as manager for the offering.

BridgeBio Pharma reported positive results from ATTRibute-CM, its Phase 3 study of acoramidis in transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, or ATTR-CM. ATTRibute-CM was designed to study the efficacy and safety of acoramidis, an investigational, next-generation, orally-administered, highly potent, small molecule stabilizer of transthyretin. Key results from the clinical trial include: A highly statistically significant improvement in the primary endpoint demonstrated by a Win Ratio of 1.8. An 81% on-treatment survival rate, which begins to approach actuarial models of life expectancy absent ATTR-CM. The absolute risk reduction was 6.43% and the relative risk reduction was 25%. A highly statistically significant relative risk reduction of 50% on frequency of cardiovascular-related hospitalization. The impact and marked magnitude of risk reduction was seen across all analytical methods employed. The company consistently observed a statistically significant treatment effect at 30 months across additional measured markers of morbidity, quality of life, and function.

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About “Biotech Alert”

The Fly will report on a selection of biotech stocks seeing a surge in interest from retail and financial professional investors, based on data from InvestingChannel.

This Fly exclusive recap reveals the biotech stocks that are seeing a spike in searches among the 20-plus million retail and financial professional investors through InvestingChannel’s online financial news media ecosystem.

This increased attention from the investors may be in response to, or advance of, outsized moves for stocks in the biotech sector, which tend to be volatile and prone to sharp swings in share price around binary events such as clinical study results and FDA approvals.