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: 

• Evelo Biosciences (EVLO), 54% surge in interest
• Catalyst Biosciences (CBIO), 53% surge in interest
• Agenus (AGEN), 43% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Evelo Biosciences is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing a novel platform of orally delivered medicines acting on the small intestinal axis, SINTAX, with systemic therapeutic effects. The company’s product candidates are pharmaceutical preparations of single strains of microbes or their extracellular vesicles, or EVs. Evelo initially is developing EDP1815 in psoriasis and atopic dermatitis and EDP2939 in psoriasis. “If shown to be effective in inflammatory disease mediated by the Th1, Th2 or Th17 inflammatory pathways, these same investigational medicines could be effective in additional inflammatory diseases, such as psoriatic and other forms of arthritis, asthma, allergy, and inflammatory bowel disease,” the company says.

Catalyst Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing its recently acquired small molecule F351, or hydronidone, for the treatment of fibrotic diseases including hepatitis B associated fibrosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. The company previously focused on protease engineering-based drug discovery and development to address unmet medical needs in disorders of the complement or coagulation systems and has been monetizing these assets to distribute cash to its stockholders.

Agenus is an immuno-oncology company targeting cancer and infectious diseases with a comprehensive pipeline of immunological agents. The company’s mission is to expand patient populations benefiting from cancer immunotherapy through combination approaches, using a broad repertoire of antibody therapeutics, adoptive cell therapies and adjuvants.

Recent news on these stocks:

August 14

Evelo Biosciences reported a year-over-year increase in second quarter earnings per share. Commetning on the results, Simba Gill, Ph.D., Evelo’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are on track for a top line read-out from our ongoing Phase 2 study in moderate psoriasis with EDP2939, our first medicine based on microbial extracellular vesicles, early in the fourth quarter. EDP2939 is a next generation product candidate that builds on previously reported positive Phase 2 clinical data in psoriasis with our first-generation product, EDP1815. EDP2939 has the potential, if approved, to be effective, safe and well tolerated, as well as affordably priced. We believe this target product profile is well positioned for the vast majority of the millions of patients who suffer from moderate and milder forms of inflammatory diseases and who are not well served by other medicines, including antibodies and the newer immunomodulatory small molecules.”

August 7

Agenus reported better-than-expected Q2 revenue, with earnings per share falling in-line with Wall Street estimates. “Botensilimab, alone or in combination with balstilimab, continues to display remarkable clinical activity in over 600 patients treated across nine late-stage, treatment resistant solid tumor cancers, demonstrating great potential to revolutionize the role of immunotherapy in cancer treatment,” said Chief Executive Officer, Garo Armen, Ph.D. “Agenus is committed to advancing our diverse clinical pipeline with a focus on expediting our first regulatory submission for the botensilimab/balstilimab combination in colorectal cancer. Our data has demonstrated an unprecedented survival benefit over what has been reported for standard of care, underscoring this combination as an important potential treatment option for patients with non-MSI-high colorectal cancer, which represents 85% of the population of patients with colorectal cancer1.”

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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.