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:

• Synlogic (SYBX), 558% surge in interest
• Morphic Holding (MORF), 504% surge in interest
• Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR), 500% surge in interest
• BioXcel Therapeutics (BTAI), 306% surge in interest
• Axsome Therapeutics (AXSM), 246% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Synlogic is advancing therapeutics based on synthetic biology. Synlogic’s pipeline includes its lead program in phenylketonuria, or PKU, which has demonstrated proof of concept with plans to start a pivotal, Phase 3 study in the first half of 2023, and additional novel drug candidates designed to treat homocystinuria, enteric hyperoxaluria and gout. In addition to its clinical programs, Synlogic has a research collaboration with Roche (RHHBY) on the discovery of a novel Synthetic Biotic for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease or IBD. Synlogic has also developed two drug candidates through a research collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA): SYNB1353, designed to consume methionine for the potential treatment of HCU, and SYNB2081, designed to lower uric acid for the potential treatment of gout.

Morphic Holding is developing a portfolio of oral integrin therapies for the treatment of serious chronic diseases, including autoimmune, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, fibrosis, and cancer. Morphic is also advancing its pipeline and discovery activities in collaboration with Schrodinger (SDGR) using its proprietary MInT technology platform which leverages the company’s unique understanding of integrin structure and biology.

Voyager Therapeutics says its TRACER AAV capsid discovery platform has "generated novel capsids with high target delivery and blood-brain barrier penetration at low doses, potentially addressing the narrow therapeutic window associated with conventional gene therapy delivery vectors." The platform is fueling alliances with Pfizer (PFE), Novartis (NVS) and Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX) as well as multiple programs in Voyager’s own pipeline, which includes wholly-owned and collaborative preclinical programs in Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Friedreich’s Ataxia, the company has stated.

BioXcel Therapeutics is utilizing artificial intelligence approaches to develop medicines in neuroscience and immuno-oncology. The company’s drug re-innovation approach "leverages existing approved drugs and/or clinically validated product candidates together with big data and proprietary machine learning algorithms to identify new therapeutic indices," BioXcel states. The company’s commercial product, IGALMI, developed as BXCL501, is a proprietary, sublingual film formulation of dexmedetomidine approved for the acute treatment of agitation associated with schizophrenia or bipolar I or II disorder in adults.

Axsome Therapeutics is developing and delivering novel therapies for central nervous system, or CNS, conditions that have limited treatment options. AXS-05 is a novel, oral, patent protected, investigational N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist with multimodal activity under development for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease agitation and other central nervous system disorders.

Recent news on these stocks:

May 11

Synlogic reported Q1 EPS of (23c) against a consensus of (23c), reported Q1 revenue of $174M against a consensus of $140K. Based upon its current operating plan and balance sheet as of March 31, 2023, Synlogic expects to have sufficient cash to be able to fund operations into the second half of 2024. "We continue to advance the SYNB1934 program towards initiation of our pivotal study, Synpheny-3, in the first half of the year, focused on our opportunity to transform the medical management of PKU," said Aoife Brennan, CEO. "The quarter also included recognition of Synthetic Biotics as novel biotherapeutics for rare metabolic diseases more broadly, as both our PKU and homocystinuria programs were spotlighted at the leading medical congress for inborn errors of metabolism."

Morphic Therapeutic announced the presentation of new preclinical data in the MORF-057 IBD development program that are consistent with previous findings and add new support to mechanistic understanding of the molecule’s activity in a nonhuman primate model of ulcerative colitis. The poster presentation was made at Digestive Disease Week, DDW, 2023. "The data presented at DDW continue to refine and reinforce our understanding of the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship of alpha4beta7 inhibition with respect to cellular biomarkers and MORF-057’s translation to treatment of patients. Further, these results link Morphic’s small molecule alpha4beta7 inhibitors with the pharmacology associated with approved anti-integrin IBD treatments," commented Bruce Rogers, PhD, President of Morphic. The study presented at DDW examines longitudinal changes in circulating biomarkers in nonhuman primates infused with stepwise increasing doses of MT-105, a small-molecule, selective alpha4beta7 integrin inhibitor tool compound with similar chemical properties to MORF-057. Key findings from the NHP study included consistency of biomarker data when compared with previous MORF-057 results and with observations from the approved monoclonal antibody alpha4beta7 inhibitor. alpha4beta7 inhibition with MT-105 elicits similar changes, including alpha4beta7 receptor occupancy and lymphocyte subset changes, to those seen in humans receiving alpha4beta7-targeted monoclonal antibodies or Morphic’s small molecule inhibitor of alpha4beta7, MORF-057. The tool compound also demonstrates consistency of pharmacokinetic effect between individual animals with highly similar exposure response curves measuring the memory T cell biomarker. Notably, unbiased single cell RNA sequencing of pretreatment and MT-105-treated peripheral blood mononuclear cells reveals consistent increases in circulating plasma cells and plasmablasts correlated with increasing exposure of MT-105. These data suggest that alpha4beta7 inhibition with MT-105 impacts antibody secretion related to gut inflammation.

Mizuho raised the firm’s price target on Axsome Therapeutics to $95 from $84 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst is "increasingly bullish" on shares following the Q1 report, with an Auvelity beat offsetting a weaker Sunosi result. The firm raised Auvelity near-term estimates in the initial indication of depression, and reminds investors of potential label expansion for Auvelity in Alzheimer’s agitation.

May 10

Truist initiated coverage of Voyager Therapeutics with a Buy rating and $18 price target. The company is an early stage biotech developing gene therapies, with its first IND using novel capsids planned for the first half of 2024, but early investors will likely be rewarded for patience as partnered programs advance, additional partnerships are struck and wholly owned programs enter the clinic creating significant value for shareholders, the analyst told investors in a research note.

Mizuho raised the firm’s price target on BioXcel Therapeutics to $40 from $38 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares post the Q1 results. In light of a third straight Igalmi quarterly sales miss, the analyst is still not particularly concerned, saying near-term sales shouldn’t matter at this stage of Igalmi’s launch. The firm is much more focused on BioXcel’s key upcoming clinical data catalysts.

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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 20-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