Biotech Industry Off to a Strong Start in 2017 Latest Reports on Seattle Genetics and Ionis Pharmaceuticals

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 9, 2017 / The Biotech Industry has had a strong start to the year after a rocky 2016. The iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index ETF (IBB) and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) year-to-date have posted gains of 5.6 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively. Investor focus for the industry now shifts to the 35th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the largest health care investing event of the year.

“Biotech has historically outperformed the broader market during The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference,” biotech analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote in a note to clients. J.P. Morgan’s annual health-care conference is held on January 9-13 in San Francisco.

Research conducted by the firm shows that the NYSE Arca Biotechnology index (BTK), which consists of 30 biotech companies, has exceeded the performance of the S&P 500 Index by almost 3 percent during J.P. Morgan’s annual health conference. “We observed that the BTK has outperformed the S&P 500 during JPM week ~81 percent of the time (all but three years),” the report said.

RDInvesting takes
a closer look at some popular biotech companies

Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN)

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Seattle Genetics’ shares gained 4.88 percent to close at $57.55 a share Friday. The stock traded between $55.14 and $59.93 on volume of 2.13 million shares traded. On January 5th, the company announced that it had initiated a phase 1 clinical trial of SGN-CD352A for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM).

“More than 124,000 people worldwide are diagnosed annually with multiple myeloma, most relapsing or becoming resistant to current therapies,” said Robert Lechleider, M.D., Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Seattle Genetics. “SGN-CD352A is a novel targeted investigational compound for multiple myeloma, and it is our latest antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, in an expanding and robust pipeline of clinical stage empowered antibody therapies to address blood cancers and solid tumors. As we begin clinical development of our first compound for multiple myeloma, we continue to explore the broad potential of our ADC technology platform for people with cancer.”

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS)

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Research Report Here

Ionis Pharmaceuticals shares gained 1.57 percent to close at $47.83 a share Friday. The stock traded between $47.56 and $50.05 on volume of 3.10 million shares traded. On January 6th, the company and Akcea Therapeutics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced an exclusive, worldwide option and collaboration agreement with Novartis to develop and commercialize AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx and AKCEA-APOCIII-LRx.

“AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx and AKCEA-APOCIII-LRx are novel potential therapies to address the broad opportunities that still exist to treat cardiovascular disease, despite currently available therapies. We believe that Novartis is the ideal partner for developing both drugs to their fullest potential,” said Paula Soteropoulos, chief executive officer at Akcea Therapeutics. “We are advancing our pipeline of novel drugs to treat previously inadequately treated lipid disorders by pursuing indications that drive the greatest near- and long-term value. This strategic partnership allows us to move more rapidly to Phase 3 cardiovascular outcomes studies with both therapies than our original development plan.”

Ionis and Akcea are eligible to receive $225 million in near-term payments, including an immediate $75 million up-front option payment and a $100 million equity investment in Ionis, which equates to 1,631,435 shares at $61.30 per share. Ionis and Akcea are also eligible to receive a license fee as well as development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments as each drug advances and royalties on net sales of each drug.

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Disclaimer: This article is written by an independent contributor of RDInvesting.com and reviewed by Hemal K. Gandhi, a CFA® charter holder. RDInvesting.com is neither a registered broker dealer nor a registered investment advisor. For more information please read our full disclaimer at www.rdinvesting.com/disclaimer.

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