Best Biotech Stocks To Buy [Or Sell] In The Stock Market Today
Biotech stocks are on many investors’ radar these days and for good reason. Given how these stocks are usually more sheltered from global events like economic uncertainty and a pandemic, it starts to be clear why investors have flocked to top biotech stocks in the last few months. Also, we could be living in the golden age of biotechnology according to some experts. With so many new treatments and drugs being pushed out every other week, the biotech sector is still booming. The research and development of these products, however, is a series of expensive, time-consuming, and rigorous testing processes. This would mean that investors of biotech stocks may have to wait for months and years before knowing if their investments paid off. You could say that the stakes are higher compared to other industries.
Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) is one example of a biotech stock that has skyrocketed over the last year. Novavax is a vaccine development company that had reported impressive efficacy results back in January. The company expects to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its coronavirus vaccine as early as May. This could potentially make it the fourth company to receive FDA emergency use authorization after Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). Given the excitement surrounding these biotech stocks, will this list of top biotech stocks be worth adding to your portfolio?
Top Biotech Stocks To Watch Right Now
- KemPharm Inc. (NASDAQ: KMPH)
- Ocugen Inc. (NASDAQ: OCGN)
- Heat Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ: HTBX)
- Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ: MRVI)
KemPharm Inc.
KemPharm is a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of proprietary prodrugs that are designed to be improved versions of widely prescribed, approved drugs. Through its Ligand Activated Therapy technology, it creates prodrugs that are new molecules in order to improve one or more of the attributes of approved drugs. The company’s share price spiked by over 70% on today’s opening bell and is currently closed Wednesday’s trading day at $13.66. What has fuelled such a rally?
This seems to be coming from the company announcing that it had received FDA approval for Azstarys, a new once-daily treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in patients age six years and older. The approval also triggers a regulatory milestone payment under KemPharm’s licensing agreement with Corium, which expects to make Azstarys commercially available in the U.S. as early as the second half of this year. That milestone payment, together with sales milestone payments, could be worth up to $468 million for the company. Given the excitement surrounding KemPharm, will you buy KMPH stock?
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Ocugen Inc.
Another biotech company making waves now would be Ocugen. In brief, it is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing gene therapies. Its developmental pipeline consists of treatments for blindness diseases, and recently, COVID-19. On that note, OCGN stock has been on a tear, tripling in value since news broke of the company’s partnership with vaccine developer Bharat Biotech. To summarize, Ocugen entered a definitive agreement to co-develop and commercialize Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. The aforementioned vaccine is known as COVAXIN. I could see its current run continuing as the duo just released new interim data on their vaccine candidate.
Namely, COVAXIN demonstrated an efficacy of 81% in its Phase 3 clinical trials in India. According to Ocugen CEO Dr. Shankar Musunuri, the results suggest significant effectiveness against the emerging U.K. variant as well. This is fantastic news for both the company and investors. On one hand, its vaccine covers yet another critical factor by being able to fend off the emerging U.K. mutation of the virus. On the other hand, this marks another step towards regulatory approval in the U.S. Understandably, investors would be keen to jump on OCGN stock. Should things go as planned, could Ocugen become the next big vaccine stock to buy? Your guess is as good as mine.
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Heat Biologics Inc.
Heat Biologics is a biotech company that focuses on the field of immunotherapy. In detail, the company’s proprietary gp96 platform activates the human immune system to combat cancer and infectious disease. It is developing a robust pipeline of first-in-class products that activate and modulate the immune system. The company’s share price has rallied by over 10% today after receiving a stock upgrade from Cantor Fitzgerald. HTBX stock currently trades at $8.58 as of Wednesday’s closing bell.
Analyst Kristen Kluska had initiated coverage on Heat Biologics with an ‘Overweight’ rating and a $22 price target. Furthermore, Kluska cites recent positive data in Heat Biologics’ HS-110. HS-110 is an “off-the-shelf” allogeneic cell-based therapy designed to activate the patients’ immune system against multiple cancer-testis antigens to elicit a diverse and robust immune response against tumor cells. This data highlights the strength of the company’s immunotherapy platforms. Additionally, along with the other 3 candidates that the company is currently working on holds a lot of promise for solid tumor treatment. For these reasons, would you say that HTBX stock is worth buying?
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Maravai LifeSciences Holdings Inc.
Maravai is a life science company that enables the development of drug therapies, diagnostics, vaccines, and support research on human diseases. From inventive startups to many of the world’s leading diagnostics and gene therapy companies, customers turn to Maravai to address their complex discovery challenges and help them streamline and scale from research through clinical trials to commercialization. MRVI shares have been up by almost 20% since the start of the week. This rally seems to be coming from its impressive fourth-quarter results yesterday.
In it, Maravai reported a revenue of $98.4 million for the fourth quarter, representing a 173.5% increase year-over-year. During this quarter, the company also expanded its IP portfolio with a third U.S. patent granted for CleanCap technology for the co-transcriptional capping of messenger RNA (mRNA). CleanCap will simplify mRNA manufacturing by removing additional enzymatic steps, resulting in high capping efficiency and improved yields over traditional co-transcriptional capping methods. Given all of this, will you consider MRVI stock as a top biotech stock to buy?
