Today's Top 5 Gainers In Healthcare Sector (AKCA, PFNX, LVGO…)

(RTTNews) - The following are some of today's top gainers in the pharma/biotech sector.

1. Akcea Therapeutics Inc. (AKCA)

Akcea Therapeutics Inc. (AKCA), an affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS), is a commercial-stage company focused on developing RNA-targeted antisense therapeutics to treat patients with serious cardiometabolic diseases caused by lipid disorders.

Gained 31.33% to close Monday's (Oct.7) trading at $19.87.

News: Akcea and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) have entered into a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement for AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx, an investigational antisense therapy being developed to treat patients with certain cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx is currently in a phase II study in patients with Type 2 diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Under terms of the agreement, Pfizer will pay Akcea and Ionis a $250 million upfront license fee, which will be split equally between the two companies. Akcea will settle its $125 million obligation to Ionis in Akcea common stock. The companies are also eligible to receive development, regulatory and sales milestone payments of up to $1.3 billion and tiered, double-digit royalties on annual worldwide net sales following marketing approval of AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx. Future milestone payments and royalties will be split equally between Akcea and Ionis.

Pfizer is responsible for all development and regulatory activities and costs beyond those associated with the ongoing phase II study.

2. Xenetic Biosciences Inc. (XBIO)

Xenetic Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, research, and development of next-generation biologic drugs and novel orphan oncology therapeutics.

Gained 21.50% to close Monday's trading at $1.30.

News: No news

Pipeline:

The lead drug candidate is XBIO-101, a small-molecule immunomodulator and interferon inducer which, in exploratory clinical studies, has also been shown to increase progesterone receptor (PrR) and estrogen receptor (ER) expression in certain tumor tissues. Xenetic is seeking partners for conducting preclinical and Phase 1 - Phase 2 studies, such as human clinical dose-ranging and biomarker studies of XBIO-101, alone and in combination with immuno-oncology therapeutics including checkpoint inhibitors. (Source: Company website).

3. Livongo Health Inc. (LVGO)

Livongo Health offers a consumer-first, data-driven digital health platform that is designed to empower people with chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives. The Company derives revenue from sales of its hypertension, prediabetes and weight management, and behavioral health solutions.

Gained 18.36% to close Monday's trading at $20.50.

News: The Company has been awarded a contract to provide the Livongo for Diabetes solution to eligible population for about 5.3 Million beneficiaries through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

The contract is the largest in the Company's history.

Livongo expects that this two-year agreement will add approximately 25,000 Livongo for Diabetes Members in 2020, growing to approximately 45,000 Members in 2021.

Recent event:

The Company went public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 25, 2019, offering its shares at a price of $28.00 per share.

4. AgeX Therapeutics Inc. (AGE)

AgeX Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on therapeutics for human aging. Gained 18.12% to close Monday's trading at $1.63.

News: No news

Pipeline:

The Company's investigational products include AGEX-BAT1 for Type 2 diabetes; AGEX-VASC1 for metabolic imbalances in aging; AGEX-iTR1547 for the treatment of congestive heart failure; and Renelon, a first-generation iTR product candidate designed to promote scarless tissue repair, all under preclinical testing.

5. Pfenex Inc. (PFNX)

Pfenex is a clinical-stage development and licensing biotechnology company.

Gained 15.55% to close Monday's trading at $8.62.

News: The FDA has approved the Company's PF708, a therapeutic equivalent to Forteo, for the treatment of osteoporosis.

Pfenex stands to earn a $2.5 million milestone payment from its commercialization partner Alvogen for the FDA approval.

Pfenex is also asking the FDA to designate PF708 as therapeutically equivalent ("A" rated) to Forteo, which would permit PF708 to be automatically substituted for Forteo in many states.

A comparative human factors study between PF708 and Forteo as requested by the FDA is underway, and Pfenex anticipates submitting the final study report to the regulatory agency as early as the second half of October 2019.

Forteo, which is marketed by Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY) for the treatment of osteoporosis in certain patients with a high risk of fracture, achieved $1.6 billion in global product sales in 2018.