The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Baxalta, Juno, Horizon Pharma, AbbVie and Dynavax
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – January 14, 2016 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Baxalta (BXLT), Juno (JUNO), Horizon Pharma (HZNP), AbbVie (ABBV) and Dynavax ( DVAX).
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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
Biotech Stock Roundup
Just a couple of weeks into the new year and a major deal has already been announced in the biotech sector, with Shire finally succeeding in its attempts to combine with Baxalta (BXLT).
While this was the big news last week, investor focus also remained on the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference where several companies presented preliminary results for 2015 and also provided their guidance for 2016. Many companies also provided pipeline updates at the conference.
Recap of the Week’s Most Important Stories
1. Shire has finally succeeded in its efforts to acquire Baxalta. The companies will be combining under a deal worth approximately $32 billion. The deal, set to close in mid-16, will lead to the creation of a global leader in rare diseases (Read more: Shire To Acquire Baxalta for $32 Billion, Strengthen Portfolio ).
Another acquisition announcement was made earlier this week by Juno (JUNO) – the company acquired AbVitro, Inc., a privately held biotech company with a leading next-generation single cell sequencing platform that will strengthen Juno’s capabilities to create best-in-class engineered T cells against a wide range of cancer targets (Read more: Juno Acquires AbVitro, Adds Single Cell Sequencing Platform ).
2. Many companies attended the ongoing J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference where key updates were provided. A preliminary look at 2015 results, guidance for 2016 and pipeline updates were provided by companies like Celgene (Read more: Celgene Drops on Preliminary Results & 2016 Outlook ), Aegerion (Read more: Aegerion Provides Preliminary Sales View & Pipeline Updates ), Agios (Read more: Agios Provides Pipeline Updates and 2016 Strategy ), Vertex (Read more: Vertex Gives 2016 View, Orkambi View to Come Later ), Acorda (Read more: Acorda's Ampyra Ends 2015 on Strong Note, Pipeline in Focus ) and Orexigen (Read more: Orexigen Targets Profitability by 2018, Focus on Contrave ) among others.
Meanwhile, Horizon Pharma’s (HZNP) shares were up with the company raising its sales outlook for 2016 reflecting the acquisition of Crealta Holdings, slated to close shortly.
3. AbbVie (ABBV) came up with quite a few pipeline updates this week. The company said that it has been granted priority review for its application to expand the label of its hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment, Viekira Pak (Read more: AbbVie's Viekira Pak sNDA Accepted with Priority Review ). The company’s NDA for its experimental leukemia treatment, venetoclax, has also been granted priority review.
Moreover, AbbVie announced that it has moved a couple of candidates into late-stage development - experimental rheumatoid arthritis treatment, ABT-494 (Read more: AbbVie Starts Phase III Program on ABT-494 for RA Treatment ) and its all-oral, once-daily, ribavirin-free investigational HCV regimen.
4. Dynavax’s (DVAX) shares shot up on positive late-stage data on the company’s investigational hepatitis B vaccine, HEPLISAV-B, which was found to fare better than Engerix-B, a currently marketed product. Dynavax intends to resubmit its BLA for HEPLISAV-B this quarter (Read more: Dynavax's Heplisav-B Tops GlaxoSmithKline's Engerix-B ).
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BAXALTA INC (BXLT): Free Stock Analysis Report
JUNO THERAPEUTC (JUNO): Free Stock Analysis Report
HORIZON PHARMA (HZNP): Free Stock Analysis Report
ABBVIE INC (ABBV): Free Stock Analysis Report
DYNAVAX TECH CP (DVAX): Free Stock Analysis Report
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