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:

• Deciphera Pharmaceuticals (DCPH), 1,854% surge in interest
• Applied Therapeutics (APLT), 1,523% surge in interest
• Tenax Therapeutics (TENX), 1,167% surge in interest
• Eloxx Pharmaceuticals (ELOX), 573% surge in interest
• AIM Immunotech (AIM), 917% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Deciphera is focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing medicines to improve the lives of people with cancer. The company says it is leveraging its proprietary switch-control kinase inhibitor platform and "deep expertise in kinase biology" to develop a broad portfolio and advancing multiple product candidates from its platform in clinical studies. QINLOCK, Deciphera’s switch control inhibitor for the treatment of fourth-line GIST, is approved in Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Applied Therapeutics is developing a pipeline of novel drug candidates against validated molecular targets in indications of high unmet medical need. The company’s lead drug candidate, AT-007, is a novel central nervous system penetrant Aldose Reductase Inhibitor for the treatment of CNS rare metabolic diseases, including Galactosemia, SORD Deficiency, and PMM2-CDG. The company is also developing AT-001, a novel potent ARI, for the treatment of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy, or DbCM, a fatal fibrosis of the heart.

Tenax Therapeutics is focused on identifying, developing, and commercializing products that address cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. The company owns North American rights to develop and commercialize subcutaneous and oral formulations of levosimendan. Tenax is also developing a unique oral formulation of imatinib designed to minimize the gastric irritation observed in a previous Phase 3 trial of the marketed version of the therapy while assuring that the dose achieved is at the level proven to be effective. Tenax expects to conduct a single pivotal trial pursuant to the 505(b)(2) pathway for regulatory approval.

Eloxx Pharmaceuticals’ lead investigational product candidate, ELX-02, is a small molecule drug candidate designed to restore production of full-length functional proteins. It is in clinical development, focusing on cystic fibrosis. The FDA has granted Fast Track designation for ELX-02 for the treatment of CF patients with nonsense mutations. In addition, ELX-02 has also been granted Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of CF patients with nonsense mutations by the FDA and orphan medicinal product designation by the European Commission. Eloxx also has preclinical programs focused on select rare diseases, including inherited diseases, cancer caused by nonsense mutations, kidney diseases, including autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, as well as rare ocular genetic disorders.

Recent news on these stocks:

January 5

Oppenheimer analyst Hartaj Singh lowered the firm’s price target on Eloxx Pharmaceuticals to $50 from $120 post-reverse split, while keeping an Outperform rating on the shares. The analyst noted Eloxx reported Q3 financial/research updates, and its stock started to trade on a 1-for-40 reverse split basis in December of 2022.

January 4

Applied Therapeutics announced a partnership with Advanz Pharma, a pharmaceutical company with a strategic focus on commercialization of specialty, hospital, and rare disease medicines, for commercialization of AT-007 (govorestat) in Europe. Under the terms of the agreement: Applied Therapeutics will receive certain near-term development milestones upon clinical trial completion and marketing authorization in Europe as well as commercial sales milestones, which in the aggregate amount to over EUR 130 million, including EUR 10 million upfront due upon signing. Applied Therapeutics will receive royalties on any future net sales of AT-007 in Europe of 20%. Applied Therapeutics will continue to be responsible for the development, manufacturing and supply of AT-007, and Advanz Pharma will be responsible for packaging, distribution and commercialization in Europe.

Tenax Therapeutics announced that it will be executing a reverse stock split of its outstanding shares of common stock at a ratio of 1-for-20. The reverse stock split will become effective at 5:00 pm ET on January 4.

January 3

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals announced findings of a planned exploratory analysis of data from the INTRIGUE Phase 3 clinical study of QINLOCK using circulating tumor DNA from a subgroup of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor previously treated with imatinib who harbor mutations in KIT exon 11 and 17/18 only. "We are extremely pleased by the exploratory analysis showing that QINLOCK, already the standard of care for fourth-line GIST patients, provided substantial clinical benefit to this subgroup of second-line patients compared to sunitinib. We look forward to presenting additional data from the overall ctDNA analysis at a medical meeting later this month," said Matthew L. Sherman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Deciphera.

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals highlighted its strategic outlook for 2023 and planned 2023 corporate milestones, and announced preliminary unaudited Q4 and FY22 revenue. Based on preliminary unaudited financial information, Deciphera expects total Q4 revenue to be approximately $36M and total FY22 revenue to be approximately $134M.

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