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:

• Tenax Therapeutics (TENX), 1,504% surge in interest
• Equillium (EQ), 800% surge in interest
• Evelo Biosciences (EVLO), 800% surge in interest
• Adial Pharmaceuticals (ADIL), 706% surge in interest
• Erytech (ERYP), 645% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Tenax Therapeutics is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing, and commercializing products that address cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Tenax Therapeutics is developing a unique oral formulation of imatinib. The company also owns North American rights to develop and commercialize subcutaneous and oral formulations of levosimendan.

Equillium is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory disorders with high unmet medical need. The company’s pipeline consists of novel immunomodulatory assets targeting immuno-inflammatory pathways, including: EQ101, a tri-specific cytokine inhibitor currently under evaluation in a Phase 2 proof-of-concept study of patients with alopecia areata; EQ102, a bi-specific cytokine inhibitor currently under evaluation in a Phase 1 study to include healthy volunteers and celiac disease patients; Itolizumab, a monoclonal antibody currently under evaluation in a Phase 3 study for patients with acute graft-versus-host disease, or aGVHD, and a Phase 1b study for patients with lupus/lupus nephritis. Equillium acquired rights to itolizumab through an exclusive partnership with Biocon Limited and has entered a strategic partnership with Ono Pharmaceutical for the development and commercialization of itolizumab under an exclusive asset purchase agreement.

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.

Adial Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of treatments for addictions. The company’s lead investigational new drug product, AD04, is a genetically targeted, serotonin-3 receptor antagonist, therapeutic agent for the treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder, or AUD, in heavy drinking patients and was recently investigated in the company’s ONWARD pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial for the potential treatment of AUD in subjects with certain target genotypes identified using the company’s proprietary companion diagnostic genetic test. The company is also developing adenosine analogs for the treatment of pain and other disorders.

Erytech is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative red blood cell-based therapeutics for severe forms of cancer and orphan diseases. Leveraging its proprietary ERYCAPS platform, which uses a novel technology to encapsulate drug substances inside red blood cells, Erytech is developing a pipeline of product candidates for patients with high unmet medical needs.

Recent news on these stocks:

February 3

Tenax Therapeutics announced the pricing of a public offering of 8.67M shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase up to 17.33M shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $1.80 per share and associated Public Warrant. The warrants will have an exercise price of $2.25 per share, are immediately exercisable, and will expire five years after their initial exercise date. The offering is expected to close on or about February 7, 2023, subject to customary closing conditions. Roth Capital Partners is acting as the exclusive placement agent in the offering. Gross proceeds, before deducting placement agent fees and commissions and offering expenses are expected to be approximately $15.6M. The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to progress the clinical development of imatinib for the treatment of PAH and levosimendan for the treatment of PH-HFpEF, toward regulatory approval for the treatment of these and potentially other indications and, depending on patents pending that the company expects the USPTO to make throughout 2023 and other factors determining near-term prioritization, channel the net proceeds towards these ends as well as for working capital, capital expenditures, continued product development, and other general corporate purposes.

February 1

Evelo Biosciences announced updates to its clinical pipeline as well as business updates. "We observed an unusually high placebo response rate in the first three cohorts of the EDP1815 Phase 2 atopic dermatitis study, resulting in a missed primary endpoint," said Simba Gill, Ph.D., CEO of Evelo. "We are working through the data to understand the very high placebo rates observed in the trial, which occurred with greater prevalence in certain geographic regions. The fourth cohort of the trial, which is designed to test the faster release formulation, is fully recruited and we expect to report data from this cohort in the second quarter of this year. The results of this cohort will inform our path forward in atopic dermatitis." Dr. Gill continued, "We have recently completed interactions with the FDA, EMA and MHRA around proposed Phase 3 plans in psoriasis. Based on their feedback, we believe we have a clear path towards a global registration program for EDP1815 in psoriasis. As a reminder, EDP1815 was well-tolerated and demonstrated positive efficacy results in a Phase 2 psoriasis clinical trial, supporting further development of EDP1815 for the broad treatment of psoriasis patients with mild and moderate disease for which there are few treatment options. Additionally, we are pleased to announce that we have begun dosing in the first clinical trial of a microbial extracellular vesicle," Dr. Gill said. "EVs have the potential to be a new type of potent SINTAX-based medicine and we are looking forward to reporting Phase 2 data for EDP2939 in psoriasis expected in the second half of this year." Clinical and Business Updates: EDP1815 Phase 2 in Atopic Dermatitis – Topline Data from First Three Cohorts; Data from Fourth Cohort Expected 2Q 2023. EDP2939 in Psoriasis – Initiation of Dosing in First EV Product Candidate: Dosing of healthy volunteers in Part A of the trial began in January 2023 and the Company anticipates dosing of patients in Part B to commence later in 1Q 2023. Phase 2 data in the cohort of patients with psoriasis is still expected in the second half of 2023.

Adial Pharmaceuticals announced it has entered into an option agreement for the sale of the assets of Purnovate, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adial, to Adenomed, a new company formed by Purnovate CEO, William Stilley, founder and former CEO of Adial. Under the terms of the agreement, Adenomed will have 120 days to exercise the option with the right to purchase two 30-day extensions. Upon exercise of the option Adial would receive $450,000, and then be reimbursed for any Purnovate expenditures incurred and paid after December 1, 2022. Under the acquisition agreement, the company would also be eligible to receive up to approximately $11 million in development and approval milestones for each compound, as well as a total of $50 million in additional commercial milestones, for a total consideration of up to $83 million with potential milestone payments on additional compounds. Additionally, the company would receive a low, single-digit royalty and acquire a 19.9% equity stake in Adenomed. Through this transaction, Adenomed would assume all current Adial obligations related to Purnovate. Cary Claiborne, President and CEO of Adial, stated, "Our focus for Adial is on the late-stage development and approval program for AD04 for the treatment of alcohol use disorder. To maximize the value of the early-stage assets in Purnovate, we believe they are best suited in the hands of a separate company. If Adenomed exercises the option as expected, Adial would receive upfront non-dilutive funding and maintain meaningful downstream economics. Additionally, this would significantly reduce our current burn rate and extend our cash runway. With regards to AD04, we will soon provide an update on our detailed strategic plan as we continue discussions with potential pharmaceutical partners both in the US and in Europe."

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