Small Cap Drug Stocks to put in your Watchlist!
The drug/biotech sector has been witnessing developments in pipeline areas like rare diseases, gene therapy and editing, and mRNA vaccines. It is expected that innovation will continue to drive growth in the sector in 2022 with advances expected to be made in areas like Alzheimer’s, cell, gene therapy, mRNA research, treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders and Covid-19 virus.
**Assertio Holdings**
This Lake Forest, IL-based specialty pharma company, which markets neurology, inflammation and pain medications.
Earnings estimates for 2022 have improved from 35 cents per share to 40 cents per share over the past 60 days. The stock has risen 50% this year so far.
Assertio Holdings has undergone a major transformation. Its restructuring is now complete and the company has now shifted focus on growing its business. Assertio Holdings has invested in digital capabilities, resolved several legacy legal uncertainties and set up a new commercial model. The company’s successful execution of its restructuring plan has resulted in significant cost savings, which have boosted its profits despite product sales decline. The company raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance in May, following strong first-quarter results and an optimistic outlook for the rest of the year.
**Regencell Bioscience Holding**
Hong Kong-based company, an early clinical stage bioscience company, founded in 2014, in the business of using traditional Chinese medicine (”TCM”) approach to develop standardized TCM formulas to holistically treat autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, and infectious diseases which affects the immune system such as COVID-19.
For over a year (Mar 2020 - Aug 2021), RGC has established protocols and procedures for conducting Evaluation and Assessment of RGC-COV19 TCM through a Holistic approach **(EARTH)** efficacy trial in Malaysia and the United States.
The first EARTH efficacy trial (EARTH-A TRIAL) yielded promising results, with mild-to-moderate symptoms eliminated in 97.3% of the 37 patients tested (except for sensory dysfunctional or occasional cough).A trial of Earth-A was conducted with the Delta Variant.
An additional efficacy trial (EARTH-B TRIAL) was also conducted later and followed the same procedures as its predecessor, but on a larger patient scale. In this trial, 80% of the COVID-19 cases were of the Omicron variant for patients gathered in Malaysia.
**Chinook Therapeutics**
This Berkeley, CA-based biotech makes precision medicines for kidney diseases. The stock is up 12.3% this year so far.
Chinook Therapeutics’ lead clinical programmes are atrasentan and BION-1301, which are being developed for IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a serious progressive disease. Data presented from the ongoing phase I/II study of BION-1301 in patients with IgAN have demonstrated durable reductions in mechanistic biomarkers and corresponding proteinuria reductions within three months of initiating treatment. Moreover, Chinook Therapeutics believes that atrasentan, which is in phase III development for IgAN, has the potential to provide benefit in multiple chronic kidney diseases by reducing proteinuria and having direct anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects to preserve kidney function. Both candidates have been granted orphan drug designation by the European Commission for IgAN.
The stock of Viracta Therapeutics has risen 3.6% this year so far. The consensus loss estimate for 2022 has narrowed from $1.44 per share to $1.24 per share over the past 60 days.
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