Biotech Alert: Searches spiking for these stocks today

These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include:

These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include: 

• Uniqure (QURE), 522% surge in interest
• Vaxart (VXRT), 514% surge in interest
• Autolus Therapeutics (AUTL), 433% surge in interest
• Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT), 418% surge in interest
• Cara Therapeutics (CARA), 404% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

uniQure is focused on gene therapy with a goal of "single treatments with potentially curative results." The company is advancing a pipeline of gene therapies to treat patients with hemophilia B, Huntington’s disease, refractory temporal lobe epilepsy, Fabry disease, and other diseases.

Vaxart is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a range of oral recombinant vaccines based on its proprietary delivery platform. Vaxart believes that its proprietary pill vaccine delivery platform is "suitable to deliver recombinant vaccines, positioning the company to develop oral versions of currently marketed vaccines and to design recombinant vaccines for new indications," the company has stated. Vaxart’s development programs currently include pill vaccines designed to protect against norovirus, coronavirus, seasonal influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, as well as a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus, or HPV, Vaxart’s first immune-oncology indication. 

Autolus is developing next-generation, programmed T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Autolus has a pipeline of product candidates in development for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Those include, Obe-cel, a CD19 CAR T cell investigational therapy designed to overcome the limitations in clinical activity and safety compared to current CD19 CAR T cell therapies; AUTO1/22, a novel dual targeting CAR T cell-based therapy candidate based on obe-cel; and AUTO4, a programmed T cell product candidate in clinical development for T cell lymphoma.

Sarepta Therapeutics engineers precision genetic medicine for rare diseases. The company holds leadership positions in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, and limb-girdle muscular dystrophies, or LGMDs, and currently has more than 40 programs in various stages of development. Sarepta’s pipeline is driven by its multi-platform Precision Genetic Medicine Engine in gene therapy, RNA and gene editing.

Cara Therapeutics is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company that notes that its Kapruvia injection is "the first and only" MHRA-approved treatment for moderate-to-severe pruritus associated with chronic kidney disease in adults undergoing hemodialysis. The company is developing an oral formulation of difelikefalin and has Phase 3 programs ongoing for the treatment of pruritus in patients with non-dialysis dependent advanced chronic kidney disease and atopic dermatitis. In addition, the company has initiated a Phase 2/3 program of oral difelikefalin for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pruritus in patients with notalgia paresthetica.

Recent news on these stocks:

May 18

Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma and Cara Therapeutics announced earlier that England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or NICE, has recommended Kapruvia for the treatment of moderate-to-severe CKD-associated pruritus in adult patients on hemodialysis. The decision follows authorization from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA, in April 2022, the company stated. "We are pleased that Kapruvia will be available to CKD patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who are undergoing hemodialysis and suffering from moderate-to-severe CKD-associated pruritus. Together with VFMCRP, we are committed to bringing our first-of-its kind therapy to providers and patients around the world to help change the way pruritus is managed," said Christopher Posner, President and CEO of Cara Therapeutics.

May 15

uniQure announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell a portion of the royalty rights due to uniQure from CSL Behring from the net sales of HEMGENIX to HealthCare Royalty and Sagard Healthcare for a gross purchase price of up to $400M in cash. "This attractive financing provides uniQure with immediate, non-equity-dilutive capital to continue to invest in our AAV gene therapy pipeline and platform and to advance potentially breakthrough gene therapies for patients, including AMT-130 in Huntington’s disease, AMT-260 for refractory temporal lobe epilepsy, AMT-162 for SOD-1 ALS and other product candidates," stated Matt Kapusta, CEO of uniQure.

May 13

Sarepta Therapeutics announced that the Food and Drug Administration Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee voted 8 to 6 in support of accelerated approval of SRP-9001 for the treatment of ambulatory patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy with a confirmed mutation in the DMD gene. SRP-9001 is intended to treat the underlying cause of Duchenne, which is characterized by mutations in the dystrophin gene that results in the lack of dystrophin protein. In the absence of dystrophin, which is required to strengthen and protect muscles, muscles become weakened and damaged, the company said in a statement. "The committee’s positive vote is based on the evaluation of the totality of evidence including the SRP-9001 product design as well as biological and empirical data," it added. The Biologics License Application for SRP-9001 is currently under priority review by the FDA with a regulatory action date of May 29. "With the May 29 action date our top priority, we will work collaboratively with the FDA to complete the review of our BLA for SRP 9001," said Doug Ingram, CEO of Sarepta.

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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