Biopharma stocks like Iveric Bio (ISEE) are for sure wild-catalyst-induced stocks. For example, Moderna (MRNA) was at $54 when I first looked at it in September and after a few “bad” news affecting it, COVID vaccines made it rise to $160 in a couple of months.
Cassava Sciences (SAVA), developing drugs against Alzheimer Disease, jumped from $3 to $12 in a couple of weeks (mostly in 2-3 days), just because early clinical trials showed some mildly promising data. Ocugen (OCGN), producing gene therapy for rare ocular diseases, went from $0.29 to $2.60 in 2 days.
This quick-catalyst-induced-increase may be seen in almost any biopharma stock which is working on a needed drug, just after the moment they release some news about it. It may be extreme if one of these 3 conditions are met:
- The drug is designed to treat a serious disease (i.e. COVID, Alzheimer or Blindness)
- The drug is designed to treat a prevalent or frequent disease (i.e. COVID and Alzheimer)
- There’s no existing treatment for that condition.
Iveric Bio is an ophthalmology fight-against-blindness drug developer. The drug is called avacincaptad pegol or Zimura.
The disease they’re treating is Age-Related Macular Degeneration or AMD.
AMD is a very serious and very prevalent eye disease, which makes it a leading cause of vision loss worldwide, for which there’s no successful treatment. Yes, the 3 conditions we need for a drug to make your favorite biopharma stock skyrocket are present here in ISEE stock.
To date, AMD does not have a useful treatment, It’s a progressive, unstoppable, degenerative disease which may present as soon as 50yo and that leads, within months-years, to the irreversible atrophy of the central portion of the retina (neurosensorial tissue responsible of converting light entering your eye into nerve impulses your brain interprets).
Ophthalmologists recommend some lifestyle and dietetic measures to these patients, which have shown a very mild effect on delaying disease progression. The only real treatment actually prescribed for AMD is the 2-3 available antiVEGF drugs that may be injected in the eye when AMD turns from a dry presentation (the most common by far) to a wet presentation (a more rare complicated form of the dry one).
What is Iveric Bio doing to fight AMD?
They’ve successfully developed an innovative drug, Zimura, which proved to significantly reduce retinal atrophy progression in AMD. We’re not talking about an early “proof of concept” trial. We’re not even talking about a phase 1 or phase 2 clinical trial. We’re saying that in August 2020, Iveric Bio already published GATHER 1 and Phase 3 information proving the safety and effectiveness of Zimura treating AMD.
Since then, with normal fluctuations, Iveric Bio has been experimenting a gradual organic healthy stock price preparing for the final catalyst. The publication of GATHER 2, which for sure will confirm the data and work as a fast-key for FDA and EMA approval, opening a billion dollar opportunity.
GATHER 2 is a 12-month clinical trial. They’re already recruiting and that will be the final catalyst, which will make ISEE stock skyrocket.
