Biotechnology companies have been quite the safe haven for traders this summer thus far. With the current events that been happening with the U.S and global markets, investors are looking for potential a “safe” trade. Two biotech companies that require your attention this summer both happen to specialize in cancer treatments.
OXIS International, Inc. (OTCMKTS:OXIS) focuses on the immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. On July 11th, 2016 the company announced that they have added six new patients in their Phase 1/ Phase 2 trials of its flagship cancer drug, OXS-1550. These new six enrollees now combine for a total of 32 patients who have participated in the clinical trial.
“OXS-1550 is designed to be an off-the-shelf drug that is safe and more cost-effective than CAR-T technologies (JUNO and KITE) and much less invasive on the patient,” quoted Anthony Cataldo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Oxis. “It will serve a much larger audience at a significantly reduced cost.”
The company’s most recent press on Monday, July 18, 2016 announced that they will hold an investor conference call on Thursday July 21st, 2016 at 4:30PM EST to discuss the plans for the second half of the year after an impressive first two quarters of the year.
Mr. Cataldo noted, “We are very optimistic for the outlook on the rest of this year. After the success we’ve seen already from our initial trials of OXS-1550, we feel that the future is looking bright.”
Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that develops novel cancer immunotherapy products. On July 7th 2016, the company announced it had completed an enrollment of 72 patients in its Phase 2 trials of DLBCL cohort in the Phase 2 portion of ZUMA-1. David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., Kite’s Executive Vice President, Research and Development, and CMO state, “We are grateful to the patients and investigators who participated in our study. We look forward to announcing top-line data from the first 50 DLBCL patients in the ZUMA-1 study, and, subject to these results, plan on submitting our Biologics License Application (BLA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2016.” KITE is currently trading at levels between $49-53 a share.
