Biopharmaceutical stocks are moving higher Monday morning. Well, at least, AKCA stock and IONS stock are. Here’s why.
AKCA Stock Skyrockets: New Licensing Agreement With Pfizer Inc.
On Monday, October 7, Akcea Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKCA), which is an affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS), announced that it has entered into a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE), a company applying science to create therapies for people in need of improved quality of life. The licensing agreement is for AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx, which, according to the press release, is an investigational antisense therapy. It is being developed to treat those with certain cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx is currently being examined in a Phase 2 study.
“AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx has the potential to treat people suffering from certain cardiovascular and metabolic diseases,” explained Akcea’s interim CEO Damien McDevitt. He furthered:
“Given the unmet medical need for this patient population and the broad market potential, we believe Pfizer’s expertise and breadth of experience in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases make it well suited to accelerate clinical development of AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx and to deliver it to patients in need of additional therapies for these life-threatening diseases.”
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According to Mikael Dolsten, Chief Scientific Officer for Pfizer, the company is “committed to delivering breakthrough medicines to patients with unmet medical needs.”
The market has jumped at this news. At the time of writing, AKCA stock is trading at $19.56 on the Nasdaq Exchange; this puts Akcea Therapeutics stock up 29.28%. Meanwhile, IONS stock is up 3.79% on the Nasdaq as well. As for PFE stock, the New York-based company is up 0.74% on the New York Stock Exchange. Results such as these provide a snapshot into the minds of investors at the moment.
Takeaway
What do you think about Akcea Therapeutics and Pfizer entering into a licensing agreement with one another? Can you see AKCA stock having more trading days like today because of it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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