Looks out Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:SNTA), and AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVEO), you're on notice too. Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ:CORT) is nipping at your heels, and better still, shares of the company looks like they're about to dole out a sizeable reward to investors who see the writing on the wall.
CORT is a biotech stock. Specifically, Corcept Therapeutics is the brains behind Korlym - a hyperglycemia treatment intended for a fairly specific subset of patients. The subset is big enough, however, to drive $2.6 million worth of sales last quarter, which is huge considering the drug only hit the market in the middle of last year. And, we're already seeing solid growth. It's also got the some drug (the same active molecule anyway) in Phase 3 trials as a treatment for depression. That's not what's making CORT worth a look today, and it's not what Synta Pharmaceuticals and AVEO Pharmaceuticals have to worry about.
"Triple-negative breast cancer" isn't a term people hear that often, even within medical circles. It's a description of a rare set of breast cancer patients that don't express the genes for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and Her2/neu. About 20% of breast cancers are triple-negative breast cancers, or TNBC. That translates into about 30,000 cases of TNBC per year in the United States, and 170,000 per year globally. Regardless of the frequency, once most chemotherapies target one of the three receptors, women with that rare strain of cancer have few viable treatment options.
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AVEO Pharmaceuticals is working on a TNBC-specific treatment. Tivozanib, from AVEO, is currently in Phase 2 trials. Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. is working on a triple-negative breast cancer therapy too, called ganetespib. SNTA is in Phase 2 trials with ganetespib as a treatment for TNBC as well. And to be fair, both drugs show promise. Corcept Therapeutics may have stolen the show today, however.
It's not even started Phase 1 trails yet. In fact, it's not even been allowed by the FDA to start those trials; it's only asked permission. But, CORT is aiming to begin the development of its own triple-negative breast cancer therapy based on encouraging clinical data. All told, five of eight patients with triple-negative breast cancer patients who experience relapse showed a partial or complete clinical response to treatment with mifepristone plus nab-paclitaxel... the drug combo Corcept Therapeutics intends to develop.
It's only a beginning - the first step on a long road. But, as veteran biotech investors can attest, progress toward a worthy and achievable end-goal is more than enough to prod a stock higher. It's the stock, in fact, that's the big story here.
Regardless of the reason, CORT is now on breakout mode, and has plenty more upside to dole out before hitting a peak. Yes, the daily chart suggests shares are overbought and ripe for a dip. The weekly chart of Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated, however, shows how the stock has been slung - bullishly - out of a sideways consolidation phase, and now that the ceiling at $2.21 is out of the way, CORT doesn't have much holding it back... after a the stock cools off just a bit in the daily timeframe. Timing is still everything. But, an eventual revisit to the ceiling just above $4.00 is a realistic target.
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