Spark Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCE)
Spark Therapeutics, Inc. (ONCE), a company that develops gene therapy products yesterday announced positive top line results from pivotal Phase 3 trial of their candidate SPK-RPE65. SPK-RPE65 is used for genetic blinding conditions. The study showed restoration of vision in patients that were heading towards complete blindness.
Spark Therapeutics, Inc. CEO Comments
“This data further validates Spark’s platform which is being applied across a growing pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs in gene therapy,” said Jeffrey D. Marrazzo, co-founder and chief executive officer of Spark. “The impact of these results provides the strongest indication yet of the role that Spark is uniquely poised to play across a wide range of inherited diseases.” Globe Newswire
Spark’s President and Chief Scientific Officer Comments:
“This is an important moment for the field of gene therapy, and demonstrates Spark’s ability to carefully and precisely integrate technologies and approaches across a range of disciplines to move the concept of gene therapy toward a therapeutic reality for patients,” said Kathy High, MD, co-founder, president and chief scientific officer of Spark. “We wish to thank the trial participants and families as well as the investigators and all who contributed to this groundbreaking trial and successful result.” Globe Newswire
ONCE Technical Analysis
ONCE gapped up in price yesterday to $63.32, up from the prior day’s close of $43.93 which is a 44% increase in price based on favorable news. Taking a look at the daily chart, we can see the last time the stock traded above this price level was on August 4th when the stock closed at $64.49. Taking a further look back on the daily chart we can see the stock has been on an overall downward trend since July 23rd when it traded at $69.77. Although until recently, the stock is starting to break that trend by putting in upward movement. On September 22nd the stock was trading at $43.26 and two days later climbed to highs of $51.70, equivalent to a 20% spike up in price. It did give the whole move back a week later. However, with yesterday’s gap up to $63.32 we are seeing another spike up this time higher than previous spike. As we can see the stock has been very volatile in its recent trading history. The stock does have a low float of 20.38 million shares and traded 9 times the normal daily trading volume. Both of these factors make the stock a good candidate for the gap and go strategy. The stock did reach pre market highs of $77.40 meaning that it gave back $14.08 at the open, equivalent to 18%. For trading purposes, my entry point would have been $63.50. My stop loss would have been $63.00, fearing anything below that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up in price.
Company Profile
Spark Therapeutics, Inc. focuses on the development of gene therapy products for patients suffering from debilitating genetic diseases. The company is developing SPK-RPE65, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of inherited retinal dystrophies, a group of rare blinding conditions caused by non-sex linked, or autosomal recessive, mutations in the RPE65 gene. It is also developing SPK-CHM for the treatment of choroideremia; and preclinical programs in development for the treatment of hemophilia A and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as a pipeline of product candidates targeting rare blinding conditions. The company has collaboration agreement with Pfizer, Inc. for the development and commercialization of SPK-FIX product candidates in its gene therapy program for the treatment of hemophilia B. Spark Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2013 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Yahoo Finance
