Pre-market Movers In Healthcare Sector: MGEN, EQ, SNSS, IPHA, BLCM, AXGT…

(RTTNews) - What's moving these stocks in the pre-market hours today?

In the Green

1. Miragen Therapeutics Inc. (MGEN) is up over 34% at $1.88 in pre-market hours Friday on no news. On Oct.28, the company acquired Viridian Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company, sending the stock up more than 140%. The acquisition adds clinical stage anti-IGF-1R monoclonal antibody, VRDN-001, intended for the treatment of thyroid eye disease, to Miragen's pipeline.

2. Equillium Inc. (EQ) is up over 24% at $7.47 in pre-market hours today, adding to yesterday's gain of 10%. The company has received FDA clearance to initiate a phase III clinical trial of Itolizumab in hospitalized COVID-19 patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome, dubbed EQUINOX. Enrollment in the trial is expected to begin this quarter, with initial clinical data expected mid-year 2021.

3. Genetic Technologies Limited (GENE) is up over 5% at $3.22 in pre-market hours, following an update of its business.

4. Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (SNSS) is up more than 4% at $1.22 in pre-market hours Friday on no news. The company is focused on developing SNS-510, a PDK1 inhibitor. SNS-510 is in IND-enabling studies. A 1-for-10 reverse stock split was implemented on September 3, 2020.

5. Innate Pharma S.A. (IPHA) is up over 4% at $4.10 in pre-market hours Friday. The company's lead compound is Monalizumab, which is partnered with AstraZeneca (AZN). A phase III clinical trial of Monalizumab in combination with Eli Lilly's Erbitux in patients with immuno-oncology (IO)-pre-treated recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, dubbed INTERLINK-1, is underway.

6. BioNTech SE (BNTX) is up over 3% at $87.60 in pre-market hours today, adding to yesterday's gain of 9%. The company, along with Pfizer (PFE) is developing BNT162b2, a vaccine candidate against COVID-19. This vaccine candidate is currently being evaluated in a global phase III study that is underway at more than 150 clinical sites.

In the Red

1. Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BLCM) is down over 36% at $3.75 in pre-market trading Friday, on disappointing interim data from a phase I dose-escalation trial of BPX-601 in patients with relapsed/refractory metastatic pancreatic cancer. The company has priced an underwritten offering of $25 million priced at-the-market and has also announced a reduction in its workforce by 79%.

2. Axovant Gene Therapies Ltd. (AXGT) is down over 34% at $2.40 in pre-market hours today on news of a likely delay in its planned randomized, sham-controlled study of AXO-Lenti-PD gene therapy for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, dubbed EXPLORE-PD. Earlier it was expected that dosing in the EXPLORE-PD study would begin in 2021. But now, the company has said that the trial is unlikely to enroll patients by the end of 2021.

3. Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (APOP) is down over 10% at $1.87 in pre-market hours today, giving back some of what it gained yesterday. The stock was up over 22% yesterday on news of the company entering into and commencing a collaborative development program with Sweden-based XNK Therapeutics, a pioneer in natural killer (NK) cell-based therapies.

4. Aptorum Group Limited (APM) is down more than 7% at $2.10 in pre-market hours today. Last month, the company launched Aptorum Innovations - an infectious disease liquid biopsy diagnostics subsidiary and its newly established exclusive in-licensing arrangements with Accelerate Technologies Pte Ltd - to co-develop novel molecular-based rapid pathogen identification and detection diagnostics ("RPIDD") technology.