Benzinga's Daily Biotech Pulse: Eiger And Melinta Fall On Offerings, Apellis And Marinus Rise On Bullish Ratings

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

Scaling the Peaks

(Stocks hitting 52-week highs on May 23)

• ABIOMED, Inc. ABMD
• ArQule, Inc. ARQL
• Crispr Therapeutics AG CRSP
• Evolus Inc EOLS
• Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU
• Merit Medical Systems, Inc. MMSI
• Mersana Therapeutics Inc MRSN
• Mirati Therapeutics Inc MRTX
• Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MNTA
• Novus Therapeutics Inc NVUS
• Retrophin Inc RTRX
• SurModics, Inc. SRDX
• Tecogen Inc TGEN
• Xencor Inc XNCR

Down In The Dumps

(Stocks hitting 52-week lows on May 23)

• Ardelyx Inc ARDX (following its capital raising program)
• Cellectar Biosciences Inc CLRB
• Edge Therapeutics Inc EDGE
• PAVmed Inc PAVM
• Soligenix, Inc. Common Stock SNGX
• Unity Biotechnology Inc UBX

See Also: Cesca Therapeutics Snags Bullish HC Wainwright Initiation On CAR-T Opportunity

Stocks In Focus

Novartis Unit Gets EC Approval For Autoimmune Disease Therapy

Novartis AG (ADR) NVS's Sandoz unit announced that the European Commission has approved its Zessly for use in Europe. Zessly is approved for several indications such as rheumatoid arthritis, adult Crohn's disease, pediatric ulcerative colitis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis and plaque psoriasis.

Melinta Prices Common Stock Offering

Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. MLNT said it has priced its 22 million common stock offering at $5 per share.

Melinta's shares fell 2.82 percent to $6.05 after hours.

Cytori Begins to Trade On Split-adjusted Basis

Cytori Therapeutics Inc CYTX announced that it effected a 10-for-1 reverse stock split on May 23, and shares will begin trading on a post-split basis, beginning on May 24.

Following the reverse split, the number of outstanding shares was reduced from 61.6 million to 6.2 million.

Eiger Announces Common Stock Offering

Eiger Biopharmaceuticals Inc EIGR announced an underwritten common stock offering, with all shares to be sold by the company.

The company said it intends to use the proceeds to fund the Phase 3 clinical trial of lonafarnib in Hepatitis Delta Virus infection, regulatory development of lonafarnib related to the treatment of Hutchison-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, and for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

The stock fell 4.30 percent to $13.35 after hours.

Ultragenyx Releases Results of X-linked Hypophosphatemia Drug Trial

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc RARE and its Japanese partner Kyowa Hakko Kirin announced a Phase 2 trial that evaluated their crysvita for treating X-linked hypophosphatemia, or XLH, in children aged 5-12 years showed improvement in rickets severity, growth, pain and physical function, and increased serum phosphorus and renal phosphate reabsorption.

The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Previously, top-line results from the study were published in April 2017.

Apellis, Marinus Up On Sell-Side Initiations

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc APLS shares were up 8.85 percent at $21.40 after hours while Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc MRNS rallied 7.07 percent $5.60.

Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of Apellis with an Outperform rating and a $52 price target. Marinus was started with an Outperform rating and a $15 price target, with the optimism premised on the impending release of mid-stage trial data for its post-partum depression treatment candidate.