5 Top NASDAQ Biotech Stocks: Cardiome on Top

Last week, the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (INDEXNASDAQ:NBI) saw a minor decrease of 0.79 percent, falling from 3,396.64 to 3,369.73 as of market close on Thursday (March 29).

The companies in our round-up have an assortment of focuses, making up a well-rounded list of pharmaceutical and biotech stocks for investors.

On that note, the five top biotech stocks that made the most gains last week include:

• Cardiome Pharma (NASDAQ:CRME)
• Avid Bioservices (NASDAQ:CDMO)
• XBiotech (NASDAQ:XBIT)
• Fennec Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:FENC)
• Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN)

Here’s a closer look at those companies and what moved their share prices.

Cardiome Pharma

Investors have taken notice of Cardiome Pharma, as this is the second week in a row the company has appeared on our top weekly NASDAQ biotech stocks list. Cardiome’s share price has been on the rise, increasing 23.4 percent to $2.32 on Thursday.

Cardiome develops and acquires products for the acute care market. It has six products commercialized plus another six in its portfolio and one in development.

Its share price may have increased this past week due to the recent announcement of insider purchases. The company’s CEO and CFO, Dr. William Hunter and Justin Renz, respectively, purchased 210,000 common shares on both the TSX and NASDAQ markets for investment purposes.

Avid Bioservices

Second on our top weekly NASDAQ biotech stocks list is Avid Bioservices, a development and manufacturing organization. The company focuses on development and current goods manufacturing practises. Its share price increased 16.8 percent to close at $2.92 on Thursday (March 29).

Over the past trading week the only news the company announced was leadership awards from the 2018 Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO). “With the CMO Leadership Award winners selected, in part, based on surveys of customers of CDMO services, our receipt of six awards highlights the meaningful impact our focus on quality, reliability, capabilities, expertise, compatibility and service is having on industry sentiment,” said Roger Lias, president and CEO of Avid Bioservices.

XBiotech

Middle of the list is biosciences company XBiotech, whose share price increased 13.59 percent to $5.35. The company is focused on pioneering the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutics antibodies based on its True Human technology. Some of the antibody therapies in its pipeline are for indications in inflammatory conditions, oncology and infectious diseases.

Though it hasn’t had any regulatory or financial updates in the past week, the company did announce data presented at a hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) conference in Europe. The data was from XBiotech’s Phase 2 study evaluating True Human antibody MABp1 to treat HS, which is a long-term skin disease.

Fennec Pharmaceuticals

Fennec Pharmaceuticals specializes in the development of sodium thiosulfate for preventing cisplatin-related ototoxicities in pediatrics patients. These are caused by platinum-based therapies.

Last week the company released its 2017 financial results with highlights from the previous year, but investors may have been more interested in the US Food and Drug Administration’s breakthrough therapy designation, which also happened last week.

“This designation is another significant milestone for the advancement of PEDMARK, as we work closely with the Agency to expedite the NDA filing,” said Rosty Raykov, president and CEO of Fennec. Over the past trading week, Fennec’s share price increased 12.72 percent to $12.10 on Thursday.

Compugen

The last company to make it on our weekly NASDSAQ biotech stocks list is Compugen. This therapeutics discovery and development company uses a discovery infrastructure to identify and develop first-in-class cancer immunotherapy in therapeutics.

Last week, the company’s share price increased 7.23 percent to end at $4.45. Some collaborators of Compugen include John Hopkins University and pharmaceutical conglomerate Bayer (ETR:BAYN). The only recent news from the company was the appointment of a new chief medical officer, Henry Adewoye. He has over two decades of experience leading clinical trials in oncology and hematology.

Don’t forget to follow @INN_LifeScience for real-time updates!

Data for 5 Top NASDAQ Stocks articles is retrieved at market close on Thursday through The Globe and Mail’s market data filter. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $50 million and lower than $500 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors are considered.

Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle Lakusta, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

***This article is updated weekly. Scroll to the top for the most recent information***

5 Top NASDAQ Biotech Stocks: Teligent on the Top

By Gabrielle Lakusta, Published March 25, 2018

Last week, the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (INDEXNASDAQ:NBI) saw a minor decrease of 3.89 percent from 3,528.37 points to 3,378.70 as of 1 p.m. Friday (March 23).

The companies on our round-up have an assortment of focuses, making up a well-rounded list of pharmaceutical and biotech stocks for investors.

On that note, the top five biotech stocks to make the most gains last week include:

• Teligent (NASDAQ:TLGT)
• ArQule (NASDAQ:ARQL)
• Cardiome Pharma (NASDAQ:CRME)
• CASI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CASI)
• Bellerophon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BLPH)

Here’s a closer look at those companies to see what moved their share prices.

Teligent

First on our 5 top weekly NASDAQ biotech stocks list in the past trading week was Teligent, a leading specialty generic pharmaceutical company. With 30 abbreviated new drug applications the company projects the applications represent a total addressable market of $2 billion.

The company’s share price rose 42.34 percent to $3.42, may have been a result from its announcement on Wednesday (March 21) that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its Halobetasol Propionate Ointment, making it the company’s second FDA approval for 2018 thus far.

“This approval was received fifteen months from the filing date and shows Teligent’s commitment to execution regarding our high-value pipeline. We expect to launch this product in the second quarter of 2018,” said Jason Grenfell-Gardner, President and CEO of the Company in the press release.

ArQule

ArQule is a biopharmaceutical company working on R&D and development for cancers and rare diseases. With five drug candidates in its pipeline, all are small molecules for targeted therapy.

Though the company hasn’t had much recent news, ArQule did release it’s Q4 and 2017 financial report recently, showing the company had nearly a $1 million decrease in net loss. The company also intends to present data from three clinical trials within the year. “2018 has the prospect of being a pivotal year for ArQule as we see a complete data set from the phase 1a trial of our BTK inhibitor, ARQ 531, launch a registrational program in Proteus syndrome, and explore emerging late-stage opportunities in oncology with our AKT program,” said Paolo Pucci, CEO of ArQule in the press release.

The company is second on the list with share price of $2.84, which increased 36.06 percent over the past trading week.

Cardiome Pharma

Cardiome, develops and acquires products for the acute care market. It has six products commercialized, another six in it’s portfolio and one in development.

Last week, Cardiome announced Health Canada accepted the new drug application for Xydalba, and granted it priority review. The drug contains dalbavancin which has already been approved by the FDA and the European Medicines Agency through different companies. Also in the past week Cardiome proposed a transaction with Cipher Pharmaceuticals (TSX:CPH) which would sublicense the commercial rights to Xydalba for the Canadian business portfolio, proposed for acquisition.

As a result, the news no doubt impacted Cardiome’s rising share price, which increased 25.34 percent to $1.92 on Friday.

CASI Pharmaceuticals

CASI has been on the top of our roundup multiple times and now sits third for the list this past week. CASI is a biopharmaceutical company working to innovative therapeutics treating cancer and other unmet medical needs with a focus on greater China.

Last week, the company announced  a $50 million private placement to prepare the company for commercialization in China. “We are grateful that seasoned investors such as IDG and Mr. Duggan share our vision for CASI and our excitement as we prepare for the launch of our first commercial product in China. Our in-licensed products, EVOMELA, MARQIBO and ZEVALIN,” said Wei-Wu He, CASI’s Executive Chairman in the press release. “We also are working on our portfolio of 29 abbreviated new drug applications (including 25 FDA-approved and 4 pending approval) that we recently acquired from Sandoz.”

Last week, shares of CASI increased 22.74 percent to $3.99.

Bellerophon Therapeutics

Bellerophon closed out our 5 top weekly NASDSAQ biotech stocks list.  The therapeutics company is focusing on developing treatments and devices for patients with cardiopulmonary diseases. For it’s INOpulse platform evaluating treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, there are two indications for the drug candidate in Phase 2 trials and another in Phase 3.

Investors may be interested in the company by it’s 2017 financial results in which the company announced it’s more than half way to finishing enrollment for the Phase 3 trial. The company also expects to release top-line data for two of it’s trial by the end of 2018. “The upcoming year has the potential to be transformative for Bellerophon, with data expected in our PAH and PH-ILD programs, as well as anticipated further progress in our PH-COPD clinical development program,” said Fabian Tenenbaum, CEO of Bellerophon in the press release.

Don’t forget to follow @INN_LifeScience for real-time updates!

Data for 5 Top NASDAQ Stocks articles is retrieved Friday at 1 p.m. EST through The Globe and Mail’s market data filter. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $50 million and lower than $500 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors are considered.

Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle Lakusta, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.