Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FPRX)
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (FPRX), a clinical stage biotechnology company announced on Wednesday an exclusive license and partnership agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb for FPRX’s colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) antibody program.
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. CEO Comments
“We believe this transformational collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb for our CSF1R antibody program represents the best of both worlds in terms of maximizing the potential of FPA008,” said Lewis T. “Rusty” Williams, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Five Prime Therapeutics. “Bristol-Myers Squibb has undisputed leadership in the immuno-oncology landscape, deep clinical development and regulatory expertise, and an established commercial infrastructure to deliver important new therapies to patients. Bristol-Myers Squibb also has a rich pipeline of clinical candidates and approved products, a number of which may have therapeutic synergy when coupled with FPA008, given the potential of CSF1R inhibition to suppress the activity and survival of tumor associated macrophages. At the same time, Five Prime will continue to conduct trials in pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) and immuno-oncology with FPA008, which is a product of our proprietary protein platform and our discovery of IL-34, one of the two ligands for CSF1R that FPA008 blocks.” Globe Newswire
FPRX Technical Analysis
FPRX gapped up in price yesterday to $27.60, up from the prior day’s close of $16.91 which is a 63% 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 January 27th when the stock hit highs of $28. Taking a closer look at the charts, we notice that the stock has had two big drops in price in the recent trading history. On August 5th, the stock was trading at highs of $25.39 and tanked down to lows of $18.50 on August 11th, equivalent to a 27% drop in price. The most recent drop was on September 18th when the stock was trading at highs of $22.24, only to fall all the way down to $14.78 on September 29th, equivalent to a 34% drop in price. As we can see, the stock has been very volatile in the last few months. The stock does have a low float of 20.64 million shares and traded on over 9 times the normal daily trading volume. The stock did reach pre market highs of $30.10 meaning that it gave back $2.50 at the open equivalent to 8%. For trading purposes, my entry point would have been $27.75 looking for a run through $28. My stop loss would have been $27.50 fearing anything below that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up.
Company Profile
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, focuses on the discovery and development of protein therapeutics that block cancer and inflammatory disease processes. The companys product candidates include FPA008, an antibody that inhibits colony stimulating factor-1 receptor and is in Phase Ib clinical trials for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis; and in pre-IND stage for pigmented villonodular synovitis and multiple cancers in combination with nivolumab. Its product candidates also comprise FPA144, an antibody that inhibits fibroblast growth factor receptor 2b and is in Phase I clinical trials to treat patients with gastric cancer; and FP-1039/GSK3052230, a fusion protein that traps and neutralizes cancer-promoting fibroblast growth factors. The companys FP-1039/GSK3052230 is in Phase Ib clinical trials to treat patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma. It has license and collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline LLC; collaboration agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and UCB Pharma S.A.; and license agreements with Galaxy Biotech LLC, The Regents of the University of California, BioWa, Inc., Lonza Sales AG, Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, National Research Council of Canada, and bluebird bio, Inc. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Yahoo Finance
