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:

• Nymox Pharm (NYMX), 2,588% surge in interest
• Oncternal Therapeutics (ONCT), 669% surge in interest
• Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA), 496% surge in interest
• Protalix Biotherapeutics (PLX), 277% surge in interest
• Avid Bioservices (CDMO), 50% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Oncternal Therapeutics is focused on the development of novel oncology therapies for the treatment of patients with cancers that have critical unmet medical need. The lead clinical program is zilovertamab, an investigational monoclonal antibody designed to inhibit the function of Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Like Orphan Receptor 1, or ROR1. ZILO-301, a global Phase 3 Study to evaluate zilovertamab in combination with ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma has been initiated. Zilovertamab continues to be evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1/2 study in combination with ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with MCL and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and this trial was recently amended to include patients with marginal zone lymphoma. Zilovertamab is also being evaluated in two investigator-initiated studies, including a Phase 2 clinical trial of zilovertamab in combination with venetoclax, a Bcl-2 inhibitor, in patients with relapsed/refractory CLL, and in a Phase 1b study of zilovertamab in combination with docetaxel in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Oncternal is also moving into the clinic with ONCT-808, an autologous chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy that targets ROR1, with an active U.S. IND as of the end of September 2022 for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive B cell lymphoma, including patients who have failed previous CD19 CAR T treatment. 

Iovance Biotherapeutics is focused on developing and delivering tumor infiltrating lymphocyte, or TIL, therapies for patients with cancer. Its lead late-stage TIL product candidate, lifileucel for metastatic melanoma, "has the potential to become the first approved one-time cell therapy for a solid tumor cancer," said the company, adding that its TIL platform has "demonstrated promising clinical data across multiple solid tumors."

Protalix is focused on the development and commercialization of recombinant therapeutic proteins expressed through its proprietary plant cell-based expression system, ProCellEx. "Protalix was the first company to gain FDA approval of a protein produced through plant cell-based in suspension expression system. Protalix’s unique expression system represents a new method for developing recombinant proteins in an industrial-scale manner," the company has stated.

Avid Bioservices is a dedicated contract development and manufacturing organization, or CDMO, focused on development and CGMP manufacturing of biologics. Avid’s services include CGMP clinical and commercial drug substance manufacturing, bulk packaging, release and stability testing and regulatory submissions support. For early-stage programs, the company provides a variety of process development activities, including upstream and downstream development and optimization, analytical methods development, testing and characterization.

Recent news on these stocks:

December 7

Craig-Hallum analyst Matt Hewitt lowered the firm’s price target on Avid Bioservices to $25 from $30 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst noted Avid provided a nice beat on revenues, increased their full year 2023 revenue guidance and commentary on the call was fairly upbeat. Importantly, he believes the company can continue to outperform its peers as it has no COVID exposure, continues to benefit from capacity constraints in the markets it competes in, and has a quality track record that is setting it apart and helping the company win business from new and existing customers.

December 5

Nymox Pharmaceutical announced that a new formal submission has been made by the Company in Europe for Fexapotide Triflutate for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. The trademarked name for the product in the application is NYMOZARFEX. The Marketing Authorization Application was submitted to the Danish authorities. The company will provide further information, including other expected submissions, when the information becomes available.

Protalix and Chiesi Global Rare Diseases, a business unit of the Chiesi Group established to deliver innovative therapies and solutions for people affected by rare diseases, announced that the FDA has accepted the resubmitted Biologics License Application, or BLA, for pegunigalsidase alfa, or PRX-102, for the proposed treatment of adult patients with Fabry disease. Pegunigalsidase alfa is a purposefully-designed, long-acting recombinant, PEGylated, cross-linked a-galactosidase-A investigational product candidate. The FDA indicated in the BLA filing communication letter that the resubmitted BLA was considered a complete, class 2 response and set an action date of May 9, 2023, under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act.

December 2

Iovance Biotherapeutics director Wayne Rothbaum disclosed the purchase of 10M shares at a price of $6.50. The $65M of shares were purchased on December 2. Rothbaum now owns 18,067,333 shares of Iovance, which is up 10% to $7.49 in after-hours trading following the disclosure in a regulatory filing.

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