Biotech Alert: Searches spiking for these stocks today

Stay ahead of biotech stocks seeing a surge in interest from retail and financial professional investors with this exclusive recap from The Fly

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

• Otonomy (OTIC), 1,144% surge in interest
• CNS Pharmaceuticals (CNSP), 561% surge in interest
• X4 Pharmaceuticals (XFOR), 419% surge in interest
• Corbus Pharmaceuticals (CRBP), 324% surge in interest
• Kala Pharmaceuticals (KALA), 246% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Otonomy is focused on therapeutics for neurotology. The company says it "pioneered the application of drug delivery technology to the ear in order to develop products that achieve sustained drug exposure from a single local administration" and that its approach is "covered by a broad patent estate," with a current focus on hearing loss.

CNS Pharmaceuticals is developing a pipeline of anti-cancer drug candidates for the treatment of primary and metastatic cancers of the brain and central nervous system. The company’s lead drug candidate, Berubicin, is a novel anthracycline and the first anthracycline to appear to cross the blood-brain barrier. Berubicin is currently in development for the treatment of a number of serious brain and CNS oncology indications including glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.

X4 Pharmaceuticals is focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies for people with diseases of the immune system. The company’s lead clinical candidate is mavorixafor, a small molecule antagonist of chemokine receptor CXCR4 that is being developed as an oral, once-daily therapy.

Corbus is an oncology company "committed to connecting innovation to our purpose of improving lives by developing new medicines that target the nexus between the immune system and cancer." Corbus’ current pipeline includes anti-integrin monoclonal antibodies that block activation of TGFβ and small molecules that activate or inhibit the endocannabinoid system.

Kala is dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of therapies for rare diseases of the eye. Kala’s lead product candidate, KPI-012, is in clinical development for the treatment of persistent corneal epithelial defect, or PCED, a rare disease of impaired corneal healing, which has received orphan drug designation from the FDA. Kala is also targeting the potential development of KPI-012 for the treatment of Partial Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency and ocular manifestations of moderate-to-severe Sjögren’s and plans to initiate preclinical studies to evaluate the utility of its MSC-S platform for retinal degenerative diseases, such as Retinitis Pigmentosa and Stargardt Disease.

Recent news on these stocks:

November 29

X4 Pharmaceuticals announced top-line results from the global, pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial, or 4WHIM, of its lead investigational therapy, mavorixafor, a novel CXCR4 antagonist, in people with WHIM syndrome. 4WHIM met its primary endpoint, with mavorixafor achieving clinical and statistical superiority over placebo when measuring TATANC, or the length of time that participants’ absolute neutrophil counts, or ANC, remained above a clinically meaningful threshold of 500 cells per microliter over 24-hour periods at four time points throughout the 52-week trial.

November 28

CNS Pharmaceuticals announced a 1-for-30 reverse split of its common stock, effective at 4:01 PM ET Monday. Beginning on November 29, the company’s common stock will continue to trade on The Nasdaq Capital Market on a split adjusted basis under the trading symbol "CNSP", but will trade under the following new CUSIP number: 18978H201. The reverse stock split was approved by CNS Pharmaceuticals’ stockholders at the 2022 annual meeting of stockholders. The reverse stock split is primarily intended to increase the company’s per share trading price and bring the company into compliance with the Nasdaq’s listing requirement regarding minimum share price.

Kala Pharmaceuticals announced the submission of an investigational new drug IND application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for KPI-012 for the treatment of Persistent Corneal Epithelial Defect . Subject to acceptance of the IND by the FDA, Kala remains on-track to initiate a Phase 2b clinical trial of KPI-012 for PCED in the fourth quarter of 2022. Topline safety and efficacy data from the trial is expected in the first quarter of 2024. If positive, this trial could serve as the first of two pivotal trials needed to support the submission of a Biologics License Agreement (BLA) to the FDA.

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 15-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.

Keywords: biotech, biotech sector, biotech alert, investingchannel, XBI, SPDR S&P Biotech ETF