The Daily Biotech Pulse: Osmotica Soars On Insider Buys, Ultragenyx's Partnered Rare Disease Drug Moves Into Clinics

Here's a roundup of top developments in the biotech space over the last 24 hours.

Scaling The Peaks

(Biotech Stocks Hitting 52-week highs on Jan. 15)

• 10X Genomics Inc TXG
• Aimmune Therapeutics Inc AIMT
• Allergan plc AGN
• Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc APLS
• Applied Therapeutics Inc APLT
• Arvinas Inc ARVN
• Ascendis Pharma A/S ASND
• AtriCure Inc. ATRC
• AVITA MED LTD/S ADR RCEL
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY(accepted for priority review the company's sBLA for Opdivo-Yervoy for first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer)
• Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc COLL
• Editas Medicine Inc EDIT
• Eli Lilly And Co LLY
• Epizyme Inc EPZM
• Fate Therapeutics Inc FATE
• Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd FOMX
• Frequency Therapeutics Inc FREQ
• GALAPAGOS NV/S ADR GLPG ( expanded an existing collaboration agreement with Fibrocor)
• GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK
• Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. HALO
• Hologic, Inc. HOLX
• Horizon Therapeutics PLC HZNP
• Inspire Medical Systems Inc INSP
• Insulet Corporation PODD
• Masimo Corporation MASI
• Medpace Holdings Inc MEDP
• Mesoblast limited MESO
• Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MNTA
• Myokardia Inc MYOK
• NeoGenomics, Inc. NEO
• Novo Nordisk A/S NVO
• NuVasive, Inc. NUVA
• Profound Medical Corp PROF
• Repligen Corporation RGEN
• Replimune Group Inc REPL
• ResMed Inc. RMD
• Revance Therapeutics Inc RVNC
• Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RIGL
• Selecta Biosciences Inc SELB
• Syneos Health, Inc. SYNH
• TG Therapeutics Inc common stock TGTX
• Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX
• Viela Bio Inc VIE
• West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. WST
• Zai Lab Ltd ZLAB
• Zoetis Inc ZTS

Down In The Dumps

(Biotech Stocks Hitting 52-week lows on Jan. 15)

• Entasis Therapeutics Holdings Inc ETTX
• Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc MACK

Stocks In Focus

Osmotica Reports Insider Purchase of Shares

Osmotica Pharmaceuticals PLC OSMT shares found some strength after it reported share purchases by insiders. Altchem bought 1.25 million shares at $5 Monday, with the number of shares owned beneficially by the firm now at 22.485 million. The company also filed share purchases by Avista Capital Partners III, the Harsaul Foundation and directors David Burgstahler and SriramVenkatraman.

The stock jumped 16.47% to $5.80 in after-hours trading.

Ultragenyx Says IND For Partnered Rare Disease Drug Approved By FDA

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc RARE said an IND application filed with the FDA by GeneTx for GTX-102 is now effective, GTX-102 is an experimental antisense oligonucleotide being evaluated for Angelman syndrome.

Ultragenyx and GeneTx are partnering in the development of GTX-102 under a Aug. 2019 agreement, with the former receiving an exclusive option to acquire the latter.

The company said enrollment into a Phase 1/2 study is set to begin in the first half of 2020.

On The Radar

Adcom Meeting

The Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee will review DURECT Corporation's DRRX NDA for bupivacaine extended-release solution for instillation, for the proposed indication of post-surgical analgesia.