Why Sunesis, Poseida, Salarius And PRA Health Are Rallying

A slew of healthcare stocks is moving on Wednesday in reaction to company-specific catalysts.

Sunesis Rises On Hopes of Completion of Merger Deal: Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNSS, a biopharma focused on developing targeted therapies for hematologic and solid cancers, filed its annual report on Form 10-K with the SEC.

The company had announced in November an agreement to merge with privately-held precision oncology company Viracta Therapeutics. In an 8-K filing Tuesday, the company said each of the five proposals related to the merger was approved by the requisite vote at the special shareholder meeting held Feb. 22, paving way for the closing of the transaction.

Sunesis shares were climbing 26.46% to $5.41.

Poseida Gains Amid Updates at R&D Day: Cell and gene therapy company Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. PSTX is holding its virtual R&D Day Wednesday. In a statement released ahead of the event, Poseida said it plans to issue an early look at its ongoing P-PSMA-01 study and demonstrate the potential for single treatment cures with a completely non-viral nanoparticle-based gene therapy system.

Additionally, the company said it would share details on its Cas-CLOVER site-specific gene editing system and offer a look at its CAR-NK, and induced pluripotent stem cell capabilities.

Poseida was advancing 18.03% to $11.98.

Salarius to Start Expansion Stage of Phase 1/2 Bone Cancer Study: Salarius Pharmaceuticals Inc SLRX, an oncology-focused biopharma, announced the initiation of the expansion stage of its ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial of seclidemstat in patients with relapsed and refractory Ewing sarcoma and Ewing-related sarcomas, also known as FET-translocated sarcomas.

Ewing sarcoma patients will receive the pipeline asset in combination with chemotherapy agents as second- and third-line therapy, with the protocol amendment expanding and improving access. Meanwhile, Ewing-related sarcoma patients are to receive single-agent therapy.

Salarius was gaining 14.25% to $2.20.

PRA Helath Soars On M&A Transaction: PRA Health Sciences Inc PRAH, a contract research organization, announced a deal to be bought by ICON PLC ICLR for about $12 billion in cash and stock, with the deal value representing a 30% premium over PRA Health's closing price Tuesday.

PRA Health shares were moving up 17.89% to $150.58.