July 12, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Biotech stocks had a tough time of it in 2016, likely due to the heated political rhetoric over drug pricing during the U.S. presidential election. Although that hasn’t gone away completely, the political debate has died down, and it seems unlikely that Congress or the Trump White House are going to be able to pull off any dramatic legislative changes in drug pricing any time soon. Meanwhile, 2017 is a booming year for biotech stocks.
The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has been averaging a monthly gain of 5.4 percent in July, the best rate historically. With that in mind, Zacks took a look at five hot biotech stocks to consider for the second half of the year.
Headquartered in Boston, Mass., Vertex focuses on rare diseases. Its big product is Orkambi for cystic fibrosis. It is currently working on a triple-pill combination for cystic fibrosis, and it’s possible the combo treatment will launch in 2020.
Zacks notes that the company’s expected growth rate for this year is a startling 492.2 percent.
Vertex are currently trading for $131.40.
Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Alimera focuses—no pun intended—on diseases of the eye. It announced on Monday that it secured the rights to pursue posterior uveitis, a secondary indication for its drug Iluvien, in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Its projected growth rate for this year is 73.8 percent.
Alimera are currently trading for $1.50.
Located in Farmingdale, N.Y., Enzo is a life sciences and biotech company that also develops research tools, diagnostics and therapeutics, and offers clinical diagnostic reference laboratory services. It has three wholly owned subsidiaries, Enzo Life Sciences, Enzo Therapeutics and Enzo Clinical Labs.
At its third-quarter financial report on June 8, Enzo reported total revenues of $27.1 for the quarter, a 2 percent increase from the same period in 2016. The company reported total revenues for the nine-month period of $79.6 million, up from $76.2 million in the same period the year before.
Zacks indicates Enzo has an expected growth rate this year of 65 percent.
Enzo are currently trading for $11.18.
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Sarepta is best known for Exondys 51, its controversial drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last fall. On June 29, the company named Douglas Ingram as its new president and chief executive officer, replacing Edward Kaye, who led the company through the DMD approval process.
Zacks writes, “Sarepta Therapeutics’ expected growth rate for the current year is 47.5 percent, more than the Medical – Biomedical and Genetics industry’s estimated gain of 5.5 percent.”
Sarepta are currently trading for $34.89.
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Exact manufactures and markets Cologuard, the first and only FDA approved stool DNA noninvasive colorectal cancer screening test. There probably isn’t a person on the planet who’s ever had a standard colonoscopy who wouldn’t prefer to take the non-invasive Cologuard test instead. Physicians still view colonoscopy as the gold standard, largely due to false positives and false negatives with Cologuard and the fact that for both, the colonoscopy is the reflex test anyway. Approved by the FDA, it is also covered by Medicare and an increasing number of insurers.
The company’s expected growth rate for this year is 18 percent.
Exact Sciences are currently trading for $38.38.
