XBiotech Inc (NASDAQ:XBIT)
XBiotech Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company saw stock prices crash on cancer drug trial results. Results were cloudy due to the tricky wording of the trial results. There was no data comparing the placebo versus the drug, but instead the data results claimed patient who responded to treatments survived 11 months versus patients who did not respond survived 4 months. On top of that after 8 weeks all patients were eligible to receive the drug in the study. Making it impossible to see results of patients who received the placebo and did not.
XBiotech Inc. CEO’s Comments
“There is an urgent need for new forms of anti-tumor, disease-modifying cancer therapies that effectively control disease while being less toxic,” said John Simard, XBiotech Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe these data demonstrate that our True Human monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-1 alpha has the potential to meet this critical need.” Globe Newswire
XBIT Technical Analysis
XBIT opened trading yesterday at $24.24 which was down from the previous days trading of $24.90. XBIT closed trading yesterday at $16.80, equivalent to a 31% decrease from the opening price. Taking a look at the daily chart we can see the last time XBIT traded below these levels was on June 22nd when it traded at $16.75. Taking a closer look at the daily chart we can see that XBIT has been on an overall upward trend dating back to March 21st when it traded at $8.61. XBIT has a float of 17.36 million shares and traded 19.85 times the normal daily trading volume on Tuesday. For trading purposes, I would like to see XBIT open trading on Wednesday below $19.25 and if it does I would be looking to take a short position at the bell. My stop loss would be $0.40 from my entry position fearing anything more than that and the stock would start to fill in the gap down.
Company Profile
XBiotech Inc., incorporated on October 23, 2005, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company is engaged in discovering and developing True Human monoclonal antibodies for treating a range of diseases. The Company focuses on bringing its lead product candidate, Xilonix (MABp1), to market. The Company has also developed a True Human monoclonal antibody discovery platform and manufacturing system. The Company’s therapeutic antibody, Xilonix, is being evaluated as a monotherapy to treat advanced stages of colorectal cancer. Xilonix neutralizes a pro-inflammatory protein produced by leukocytes and other cells, interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1a). The Company completed a Phase I and II clinical trial for MABp1 as a treatment for cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The Company is also investigating MABp1 in clinical trials for other indications, including vascular disease, type II diabetes, acne and psoriasis. The Company also conducted approximately two Phase II pilot studies in skin disease, evaluating the benefit of MABp1 in subjects with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis and moderate to severe acne vulgaris. The Company is using its True Human antibody technology to develop a therapy against clostridium difficile. The Company’s subsidiaries include XBiotech USA Inc., XBiotech Schweiz AG, XBiotech Japan KK and XBiotech GmbH. The Company has not generated any revenue. The Company competes with Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE:GSK), Janssen, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (T:4502), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), Daiichi Sanko, AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE:AZN), Roche GS (SIX:ROG), Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS), Xoma/Servier, AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Baxter International Inc (NYSE:BAX), Sandoz, Akorn Inc (NASDAQ:AKRX), Hospira, Cubist and Durata. Reuters