It’s a new month and with it comes new opportunity. With how much the markets have recovered recently, a hot summer could be ahead of us, so how are you preparing? Did you spend this past weekend studying? Maybe you looked at charts or studied chart patterns. Did you hop on Twitter and look through tweets from companies that you follow? Are you following any specific companies/stocks right now?
These are all important questions to be asking yourself as we head into the summer. This is a fresh starting heading into June and you should look to take advantage if things haven’t been going well for you. So, what exactly have you been seeing in the headlines the past few days?
Read More: Do You Have These 3 Penny Stocks On Your Watch-list?
Obviously, the major news is the multitude of protests/rioting that has been popping up over the U.S. You also have the SpaceX launch that took place on Saturday. And, as you’ve seen the past several months, even more news on the coronavirus. These headlines are generating a ton of buzz and can cause investors to speculate on what might be the next big penny stock to pop off. Here are a few penny stocks to watch closely over the next several days.
Your No. 1 Penny Stock To Watch Heading Into June: Immutep Limited
Immutep Limited (Nasdaq: IMMP), a biotechnology company, engages in the research, development, and commercialization of biological products. The company develops immunotherapeutic products for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Its therapeutics are based on the lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3) Ig fusion protein, a cell surface molecule that plays a role in regulating T cells.
The company’s lead product candidate is eftilagimod alpha (efti), an antigen presenting cell activator, which is in a Phase IIb clinical trial as a chemoimmunotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Its other products include TACTI-002, a combination of efti with KEYTRUDA that is in a Phase II clinical trial for solid tumors; INSIGHT-004, a human anti-PD-L1 antibody, which is in a Phase I clinical trial to evaluate a combination of efti with avelumab; and TACTI-mel that is in a Phase I clinical trial for metastatic melanoma.
Immutep Limited announced new interim data from its ongoing Phase II TACTI-002 study. This data relates to the cut-off date of 4 May 2020 and shows improving efficacy results. The results were presented as a poster short talk by trial investigator, Dr Enriqueta Felip, of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, at the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Virtual Annual Meeting. The poster presentation from Dr. Felip is available on the company’s website.
TACTI-002 is being conducted in collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA (known as “MSD” outside the United States and Canada). The study is evaluating the combination of the Company’s lead product candidate eftilagimod alpha (“efti” or “IMP321”) with MSD’s KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in up to 109 patients with second line Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) or Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) in first and second line.
Immutep CSO and CMO, Dr Frederic Triebel said: “TACTI-002 is generating increasingly promising data from both the NSCLC and HNSCC arms of study, as patients continue to receive efti in combination with KEYTRUDA. Remarkably, one HNSCC patient has even achieved a complete response, bringing the total response rate to an improved 39% in this arm. This is an early indication that the efti in combination with pembrolizumab may more than double the proportion of HNSCC patients that respond to pembrolizumab monotherapy, which is usually 18% or less.”
Your No. 2 Penny Stock To Watch Heading Into June: Altimmune, Inc.
Altimmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALT) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for liver disease, immune modulating therapies and vaccines. Our diverse pipeline includes next generation peptide therapeutics for NASH (ALT-801) and chronic hepatitis B (HepTcell™), an intranasal immune modulator for COVID-19 (T-COVID™) and intranasal vaccines (NasoVAX™, NasoShield™ and AdCOVID™).
Altimmune, Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the Company to proceed with a clinical trial of T-COVID, an investigational agent for the treatment of early COVID-19. Patient enrollment in the Phase 1/2 clinical trial is expected to commence in June, with data readout anticipated in Q4 2020.
T-COVID is based on the same replication-deficient adenovirus 5 (RD-Ad5) vector technology behind Altimmune’s intranasal vaccine candidates, which include NasoVAX for influenza, NasoShield for anthrax, and AdCOVID for COVID-19, but it acts through a different mechanism. In preclinical studies sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, intranasal administration of RD-Ad5 vectors modulated the innate immune response to lethal challenge with a respiratory virus in mice and protected them from death. The immunomodulatory effects resulted in significantly decreased cellular inflammation and lower concentrations of IL-6 and other inflammatory cytokines in the lungs of treated animals compared to controls. Excessive production of inflammatory cytokines like IL-6 has been associated with the lung pathology and death in COVID-19. The protective effects were independent of any specific immunity or vaccine effects against the challenge virus. These protective effects were only observed with intranasal administration of RD-Ad5, and intramuscular administration provided no survival benefit.
The Company believes that treatment with T-COVID administered as a single intranasal dose to patients with an early onset of symptoms and recent diagnosis of COVID-19 may prevent the progression to severe lung inflammation and thereby decrease the development of severe COVID-19 and the need for hospitalization. The FDA has agreed that the Company may use its existing lot of RD-Ad5-based NasoVAX influenza vaccine for the planned T-COVID clinical trial allowing the Company to immediately initiate the study.
Your No. 3 Penny Stock To Watch Heading Into June: Kazia Therapeutics Limited
Kazia Therapeutics Limited (Nasdaq: KZIA), an oncology-focused biotechnology company, develops anti-cancer drugs. Its lead development candidate is GDC-0084, a small molecule, brain-penetrant inhibitor of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, which is developed as a potential therapy for glioblastoma. The company is also developing Cantrixil, which is being developed for the treatment of ovarian cancer and is in hospitals across Australia and the United States under an Investigational New Drug application. Kazia Therapeutics Limited has collaboration agreements St Jude Childrens Hospital; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre; and University of Newcastle.
Kazia Therapeutics Limited is pleased to share a poster presentation of interim data from the ongoing phase II study of paxalisib (formerly GDC-0084) in glioblastoma, the most common and most aggressive form of primary brain cancer. Top-line data from this interim analysis was previously announced to ASX on 7 April 2020.
Key Points
- Analysis of Stage 1 of the study (n=9) shows median overall survival (OS) of 17.7 months. This compares very favourably with temozolomide, the existing standard of care, which has a reported median OS of 12.7 months in this patient population
- Progression-free survival (PFS) in Stage 1 was 8.4 months, which represents a clinically material advantage over the 5.3 months associated with temozolomide
- The longest-treated patient remains on therapy and progression-free some 19 months after diagnosis
- Safety profile is consistent with prior clinical experience. Rash, mucositis, and hyperglycemia are the most common toxicities, and 60mg, once daily, orally, was confirmed as the maximum tolerated dose (MTD)
Professor Patrick Wen from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who was the lead author on the poster presentation, commented, “These are encouraging early signals. We anticipate paxalisib will move into a pivotal study later this year and look forward to reviewing further data as it emerges.”
Kazia CEO, Dr James Garner, added, “We are pleased to be able to share these extremely promising data with clinicians and partners, albeit in the novel forum of a virtual academic meeting. As we have previously said, the gold standard for any new cancer drug is the ability to extend life, and we are seeing evidence from this study that paxalisib may achieve this very challenging goal. We expect to begin recruitment to the international GBM AGILE pivotal study in the second half of this year. In the meantime, we expect several further data read-outs over the next two quarters.”
