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:

• Bellerophon Therapeutics (BLPH), 17,054% surge in interest
• Zai Lab (ZLAB), 2,593% surge in interest
• Orchard Therapeutics (ORTX), 1,479% surge in interest
• CytomX Therapeutics (CTMX), 1,121% surge in interest
• Fibrogen (FGEN), 733% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Bellerophon Therapeutics is focused on developing therapies that address significant unmet medical needs in the treatment of cardiopulmonary diseases. The company is currently developing multiple product candidates under its INOpulse program, a proprietary pulsatile nitric oxide delivery system.

Zai Lab Limited is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company based in China and the United States focused on bringing medicines for oncology, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, and neurological disorders to patients in China and around the world.

Orchard Therapeutics discovers, develops and commercializes new treatments that tap into the curative potential of hematopoietic stem cell, or HSC, gene therapy. In this approach, a patient’s own blood stem cells are genetically modified outside of the body and then reinserted, with the goal of correcting the underlying cause of disease in a single treatment. In 2018, the company acquired GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) rare disease gene therapy portfolio, which originated from a collaboration between GSK and the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy. Today, Orchard has a pipeline spanning pre-clinical, clinical and commercial stage HSC gene therapies.

CytomX is a clinical-stage, oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company whose pipeline comprises seven therapeutic candidates across multiple treatment modalities including antibody-drug conjugates, or “ADCs,” T-cell engaging bispecific antibodies, or “TCBs,” and immune modulators such as cytokines and checkpoint inhibitors. CX-2029 is an investigational conditionally activated antibody-drug conjugate directed toward CD71, which has demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity in patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer and is being developed in collaboration with AbbVie (ABBV). CytomX’s clinical pipeline also includes cancer immunotherapeutic candidates against validated targets such as the CTLA-4-targeting Probody therapeutics, BMS-986249 and BMS-986288, partnered with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), as well as CX-904, a conditionally activated T-cell-engaging bispecific antibody targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor on tumor cells and the CD3 receptor on T cells, which is partnered with Amgen (AMGN).

FibroGen is committed to leveraging its expertise in connective tissue growth factor biology and hypoxia-inducible factor to discovering, developing, and commercializing a pipeline of first-in-class therapeutics for the treatment of unmet needs. Pamrevlumab, an anti-CTGF human monoclonal antibody, is in clinical development for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer, metastatic pancreatic cancer, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD. Roxadustat is currently approved in China, Europe, Japan, and numerous other countries for the treatment of anemia in CKD patients on dialysis and not on dialysis. Roxadustat is in Phase 3 clinical development in the U.S. and Europe for anemia associated with myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS, and in Phase 3 clinical development in China for treatment of chemotherapy-induced anemia, or CIA.

Recent news on these stocks:

January 5

Bellerophon Therapeutics announced that it has entered into a license agreement for the development and commercialization of INOpulse with Baylor BioSciences, a life sciences company dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative medical products for Greater China. Under the terms of the license agreement, Bellerophon will receive a license payment of $6M, payable within 90 days subject to certain closing conditions set forth in the agreement. Additionally, Bellerophon is entitled to royalties of 5% on net sales resulting from all of the licensed INOpulse indications within Greater China. Baylor BioSciences will receive exclusive rights to develop and commercialize INOpulse within Greater China for diseases associated with pulmonary hypertension, including the lead indication of fibrotic interstitial lung disease, as well as PH-Sarcoidosis and PH-COPD.

Zai Lab and Novocure (NVCR) announced the LUNAR study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival over standard therapies alone. The LUNAR study is a pivotal, open-label, randomized study evaluating the safety and efficacy of Tumor Treating Fields together with standard therapies for stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC, following progression while on or after treatment with platinum-based therapy. The LUNAR study also showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival when patients were treated with TTFields and immune checkpoint inhibitors, as compared to those treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors alone, and a positive trend in overall survival when patients were treated with TTFields and docetaxel versus docetaxel alone. Patient enrollment was well balanced between the ICI and docetaxel cohorts of the experimental and control arms, and control arms performed in line with prior studies. TTFields therapy was well tolerated by patients enrolled in the experimental arm of the study.

Orchard Therapeutics announced the FDA has cleared its Investigational New Drug, IND, application for OTL-203, a hematopoietic stem cell, HSC, gene therapy being developed for the treatment of the Hurler subtype of mucopolysaccharidosis type I, MPS-IH. The company expects to initiate a global registrational trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of OTL-203 compared to standard of care in the second half of 2023.

CytomX Therapeutics announced its 2023 company priorities and provided a pipeline update which included anticipated milestones for 2023, recent progress and achievements in its wholly owned and collaboration pipeline, and a data update for the Phase 2, CX-2029 cohort expansion study. The company will host a call with investors to review the CX-2029 cohort expansion study data and potential key pipeline events for 2023. "For CX-2029 specifically, we have pushed the boundaries of biologics localization with our Probody technology to create a therapeutic window for the previously undruggable target, CD71. The full CX-2029 Phase 2 cohort expansion data continues to demonstrate encouraging clinical activity in unselected, heavily pre-treated patients with tumors of squamous histology and we look forward to working with our partner AbbVie to determine the next steps for this program," said Dr. McCarthy.

BofA analyst Jason Gerberry upgraded FibroGen to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $27, up from $18, ahead of Phase 3 topline data for pamrev for the treatment of IPF due in mid-2023. The analyst, who views the IPF data as a "potentially transformational event," raised his view on the odds of success for pamrev to 60% from 50%.

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