Today’s pharmaceutical market is facing the challenges of inflation, government-imposed drug price caps and waning demand for COVID-19 vaccines. However, the industry’s major underlying drivers — higher rates of cancer and chronic diseases — are still at play.
Year-over-year gain: 239.49 percent
Market cap: US$297.69 million
Share price: US$3.31
Chimerix is a clinical-stage company developing medicines to improve the quality of life for patients facing deadly diseases. Its most advanced drug development program is ONC201 (dordaviprone), which is in development for recurrent H3 K27M-mutant glioma, a lethal form of brain cancer.
“With this submission, we now turn our attention to preparing for potential commercial launch in the U.S. next year,” stated Chimerix CEO Mike Andriole.
Chimerix shares hit a yearly high of US$3.66 on January 7, 2025.
Year-over-year gain: 195.98 percent
Market cap: US$372.89 million
Share price: US$14.00
Eton Pharmaceuticals is developing and commercializing treatments for ultra-rare diseases. Its commercial portfolio of rare disease products includes Alkindi Sprinkle, Increlex, PKU Golike and multiple FDA-approved generic bioequivalents. The company also has several product candidates in late-stage development: hydrocortisone oral solution ET-400, ET-600 for diabetes insipidus and the ZENEO hydrocortisone autoinjector.
Eton’s share price performed exceptionally well in the second half of 2024 and into the first few weeks of 2025 on robust quarterly financials, acquisitions and key milestones.
Year-over-year gain: 139.63 percent
Market cap: US$334.14 million
Share price: US$5.20
Corvus Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharma company developing an immunotherapy platform based on ITK inhibition for the treatment of various cancer and immune diseases. The company’s lead product candidate is soquelitinib, an investigational small molecule drug that selectively inhibits ITK and is delivered orally.
Corvus is another NASDAQ pharma stock that saw significant gains in the last half of 2024.
Year-over-year gain: 110.9 percent
Market cap: US$276.17 million
Share price: US$3.29
ATyr Pharma is using its proprietary tRNA synthetase platform, which includes a library of domains derived from all 20 tRNA synthetases, to develop new therapies for fibrosis and inflammation. The company’s lead therapeutic candidate is efzofitimod, a first-in-class biologic immunomodulator targeting interstitial lung disease.
The fourth quarter of 2024 was very good to aTyr’s stock value, and it has continued to perform well into January 2025.
Shares in aTyr Pharma climbed by more than 92 percent through the month to a then yearly high of US$3.35 on October 22.
Year-over-year gain: 90 percent
Market cap: US$178.73 million
Share price: US$2.66
Inhibikase Therapeutics is developing protein kinase inhibitor therapeutics for modifying the course of cardiopulmonary and neurodegenerative disease through Abl kinase inhibition. Its two leading drug candidates are IkT-001Pro, a prodrug of imatinib mesylate, for pulmonary arterial hypertension with fewer on-dosing side-effects; and risvodetinib, a selective c-Abl inhibitor to treat Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s-related disease.
Shares of Inhibikase reached a yearly high of US$3.97 on December 17.
Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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