Recent IPO stock Apogee Therapeutics spiked for a second day early Tuesday after the biotech company unveiled promising results for its experimental eczema treatment.
The company tested an under-the-skin injection of its eczema treatment in healthy volunteers. Early-stage results show Apogee's approach kept the drug in participants' systems for roughly three months. This suggests patients could eventually control their eczema with shots every three to six months.
Wedbush analyst David Nierengarten said the results beat Apogee's expectations. Apogee's drug has a half-life of 75 days. This is how long a drug can persist in the body. The company aimed for at least 33 days, he said in a report. Apogee is now planning a Phase 2 study for the first half of this year.
On today's stock market, Apogee stock rallied 42.1% to 59.30. The IPO stock had soared more than 12% in powerful trade on Monday, moving out of a buy range following a rebound from support at its 10-week moving average, MarketSurge.com shows.
Apogee ended Tuesday 132% up from a late-December breakout.
IPO Stock Faces Competition
Apogee is facing some competition in eczema treatment, however. It's going up against Eli Lilly's drug, lebrikizumab. Both drugs target IL-13, a critical cytokine in inflammation and the primary driver of eczema. But Apogee says its drug could be 30% to 40% more powerful than lebrikizumab.
Lilly's drug could gain Food and Drug Administration approval this year. Privately held Galderama is also expected to win approval for its eczema treatment, nemolizumab. Both are given every four weeks. But Nierengarten says Galderama could struggle. Its sales force mostly focuses on aesthetic dermatology.
"We are skeptical on the extent to which nemolizumab can capture market share in the (eczema) space," he said. "Following last year's FDA (rejection) concerning manufacturing issues, Lilly does not expect a U.S. commercial launch of lebrikizumab until late 2024 at the earliest."
He kept his outperform rating on IPO stock Apogee.
Waltham, Mass.-based Apogee also reported its losses for the quarter widened to $31.7 million, up from $14 million a year ago. Rising research and development costs drove the increase. Management also said it anticipates cash on hand is sufficient to carry operations into the fourth quarter of 2024.
Apogee held its initial public offering in July 2023. Since then, shares have nearly doubled. The company is working on treatments for eczema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. The latter is an inflammatory condition in the lungs.
Shares have a strong Relative Strength Rating of 97, according to IBD Digital. This puts the IPO stock in the top 3% of all stocks in terms of 12-month performance.
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