5 Top Weekly NASDAQ Biotech & Pharma Stocks: Corvus Soars

The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (INDEXNASDAQ:NBI) was in the red again last week, dropping slightly from 3,465.62 points on Monday (July 1) to 3,442.41 pints as of 1:05 p.m. EDT on Friday (July 5).

On Wednesday (July 3), Karyopharm (NASDAQ:KPTI) announced that it received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its oral treatment XPOVIO, which will treat adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Shares of the company increased by more than 40 percent following the FDA’s approval.

Last week’s five top gainers were as follows:

• Corvus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CRVS)
• Avid Bioservices (NASDAQ:CDMO)
• Ovid Therapeutics (NASDAQ:OVID)
• Melinta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MLNT)
• Tyme Technologies (NASDAQ:TYME)

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

Corvus Pharmaceuticals

Corvus Pharmaceuticals is focused on creating products to treat cancers such as refractory renal cell carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer.

The company currently has five programs in its pipeline: ciforadenant, CPI-006, CPI-818, Adenosine A2B receptor antagonist and myeloid cell suppression.

Over the week, the company did not release any announcements. That being said, its share price increased 101.18 percent during the shortened week to reach US$6.82 as of 2:29 p.m. EDT on Friday.

Avid Bioservices

Avid Bioservices’ area of focus is on developing products originating from mammalian cell culture. This is the process of growing cells outside of their regular environment in a dish in a controlled environment.

Shares of the company increased 51.57 percent last week to US$6.01 as of 2:40 p.m. EDT on Friday.

Ovid Therapeutics

Ovid Therapeutics develops products for rare neurological conditions. Its pipeline has treatments for Angelman syndrome, Fragile X syndrome and rare forms of epilepsy.

The company announced on Tuesday (July 2) that it had received orphan drug designation from the European Commission for its OV101 treatment for Angleman syndrome. The designation was given based off results from the company’s Phase 2 STARS trial.

Shares of Ovid Therapeutics were up 46.74 percent last week to reach US$2.74 as of 2:49 p.m. EDT on Friday.

Melinta Therapeutics

Melinta Therapeutics is a pure-play antibiotics company geared towards developing products for bacterial infections. The company has four marketed products in the US: Baxdela, Vabomere, Orbactiv and Minocin.

Over last week’s trading period, shares of Melinta Therapeutics rose 33.68 percent to US$7.43 as of 3:03 p.m. EDT. Despite the share price increase, Melinta Therapeutics had no announcements over the week.

Tyme Technologies

Closing out the list is Tyme Technologies, which is a company developing products for cancer-metabolism with the goal of being effective across a range of tumors.

The company’s SM-88 is currently in Phase 2 development for prostate and pancreatic cancers. However, it has the potential to be indicated for other cancers, including breast, lung, brain, ovarian, colon, sarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma.

On Friday, the company provided an update to its TYME-88 Phase 2 study in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Results showed median survival rates of patients was over six months compared to previous trials, for which survival rate was between two and 2.5 months.

As a result, shares of Tyme Technologies were on the rise, climbing 33.47 points last week to US$1.44 as of 2:58 p.m. EDT on Friday.

Data for the 5 Top NASDAQ Biotech and Pharma Stocks articles is retrieved each Friday at 1:00 p.m. EDT using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than US$15 million and lower than US$500 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors are considered.

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