Kite Pharma Leads IBB’s Mid-Caps on Its Zuma-1 Phase 1 Results
IBB Falls as Biotechs Bear the Weight of Global Pressures
IBB’s mid-caps under pressure
The mid-cap (middle capitalization) stocks of the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) fell as much as 2.6% on December 7, 2015, underperforming the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the IBB, which returned -0.6% and -2.3%, respectively.
Among the 30 mid-cap stocks that IBB holds in its portfolio, 27 ended up in the red, while three gave positive returns on the day. IBB’s mid-cap stocks account for ~19.1% of its portfolio. Top mid-cap performers included Kite Pharma (KITE) and Qiagen (QGEN), which returned 1.2% and 0.4%, respectively. Bottom mid-cap performers included Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) and Novavax (NVAX), which returned -10.3% and -7.5%, respectively.
The above graph reflects the performances of IBB’s mid-caps, IBB, and SPY. Since the beginning of December 2015, IBB’s mid-caps have returned -3.8%, IBB has returned -2.9%, and SPY has returned -0.1%.
Kite Pharma presents Phase 1 results from Zuma-1
Kite Pharma rose by 1.2% on positive data from its Phase 1 clinical trial of Zuma-1. As per its press release, KITE announced “clinical biomarker data and product characteristics for anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (or CAR) T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (or NHL) enrolled in an ongoing phase 1-2 clinical trial at the National Cancer Institute (or NCI), which is being conducted under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (or CRADA) between Kite and the NCI. In this clinical trial, patients with a range of B cell cancers were conditioned with cyclophosphamide and fludarabine prior to receiving anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy.”
The results were announced at the 57th American Society of Hematology annual meeting in Orlando, Florida.
KITE closed at $71.26 on December 7, 2015, and was trading above its 100-day moving average but below its 20-day moving average. KITE has a book value of $8.24 per share. With its current price, the stock is being traded at a price-to-book value of 8.65x. KITE has a weight of ~0.6% in IBB’s portfolio.
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