Biotech Alert: Searches spiking for these stocks today

These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include:

• Ventyx Biosciences (VTYX), 276% surge in interest
• Relmada Therapeutics (RLMD), 256% surge in interest
• Instil Bio (TIL), 238% surge in interest
• Imunon (IMNN), 199% surge interest
• UroGen Pharma (URGN), 165% surge in interest
• Replimune Group (REPL), 151% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Ventyx Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative oral therapies for patients with autoimmune, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases. The company says, “Our expertise in medicinal chemistry, structural biology, and immunology enables the discovery of differentiated oral small molecule therapeutics for conditions with high unmet medical need, and our extensive experience in clinical development allows the rapid progression of these drug candidates through clinical trials.”

Relmada Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing transformative therapies for central nervous system and oncology-related conditions. Its lead candidates, NDV-01 and sepranolone, are advancing through mid-stage clinical development with the potential to address significant unmet needs.

Instil Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing a pipeline of novel therapies. Instil’s lead asset, AXN-2510, is a novel and differentiated PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody in development for the treatment of multiple solid tumors.

Imunon is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on advancing a portfolio of innovative treatments that harness the body’s natural mechanisms to generate safe, effective and durable responses across a broad array of human diseases, constituting a differentiating approach from conventional therapies. The company is developing its non-viral DNA technology across its modalities. The first modality, TheraPlas, is developed for the gene-based delivery of cytokines and other therapeutic proteins in the treatment of solid tumors where an immunological approach is deemed promising. The second modality, PlaCCine, is developed for the gene delivery of viral antigens that can elicit a strong immunological response.

UroGen is a biotech company dedicated to developing and commercializing solutions that treat urothelial and specialty cancers. UroGen has developed RTGel reverse-thermal hydrogel, a proprietary sustained-release, hydrogel-based platform technology that has the potential to improve the therapeutic profiles of existing drugs. UroGen’s sustained release technology is designed to enable longer exposure of the urinary tract tissue to medications, making local therapy a potentially more effective treatment option. The company’s first product to treat LG-UTUC and investigational treatment UGN-102 for intravesical solution for patients with low-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer are designed to ablate tumors by non-surgical means.

Replimune Group is focused on the development of novel tumor-directed oncolytic immunotherapies. Replimune’s proprietary RPx platform is based on a HSV-1 backbone with payloads added to maximize immunogenic cell death and the induction of a systemic anti-tumor immune response. The RPx platform’s dual local and systemic mechanism of action is “expected to be synergistic with most established and experimental cancer treatment modalities, and, with an attractive safety profile the RPx platform has the versatility to be developed alone or combined with a variety of other treatment options,” the company stated.

Recent news on these stocks:

May 27

Imunon announced that an abstract highlighting IMNN-001 data based on an immune biomarker analysis from the Phase 2 OVATION 2 Study in women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer was accepted for poster presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology, ESMO, Gynaecological Cancers Congress 2025, being held June 19-21, 2025 in Vienna, Austria. The abstract, titled “Immune biomarker analysis of the OVATION-2 trial, a randomized Phase I/II study of IL-12 gene therapy IMNN-001 in combination with Neo/Adjuvant Chemotherapy in newly-diagnosed advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer,” will be presented by Premal H. Thaker, M.D., Interim Chief of Gynecologic Oncology, David & Lynn Mutch Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Director of Gynecologic Oncology Clinical Research at Washington University School of Medicine, OVATION 2 Study Chair and Study Chair of the Phase 3 OVATION 3 trial.

May 22

Instil Bio and ImmuneOnco announced clinical trial updates of AXN-2510 and NSCLC clinical development strategy. The companies anticipate sharing further clinical data in the second half of 2025. ImmuneOnco expects to complete enrollment of approximately 60 patients in Q3 2025 in its Phase 2 trial of ‘2510 in combination with chemotherapy in patients with NSCLC in the first-line setting in China. Among more than 30 NSCLC patients enrolled, more than 20 first-line NSCLC patients have been treated since the end of March. The objective response rate is similar to datasets from competitor PD-(L)1xVEGF bispecific antibodies at a similar stage of development in patients with previously treated NSCLC, showing ORR of 23%. Instil’s Phase 1b/2 trial of ‘2510 in the United States is expected to be initiated before the end of 2025, assuming necessary regulatory approvals. Instil believes that this may accelerate the path to initiating a potential global Phase 3 trial in first-line NSCLC.

Replimune reported downbeat Q4 earnings per share. “As we near our PDUFA date, our commercial organization is now fully hired and ready to execute our first launch in advanced melanoma,” said Sushil Patel, Ph.D., CEO of Replimune. “We have a deep understanding of the market landscape, prescriber adoption and referral patterns, and a launch plan optimized for intra-tumoral delivery across all customer segments. We believe the opportunity for RP1 to help improve the lives of patients with advanced melanoma is significant. We estimate approximately 13,000 patients progress on or after PD-1 treatment annually in the U.S. with approximately 80% of these patients eligible for treatment with RP1. Importantly, these treatments will take place in the outpatient setting and not require hospitalization. We look forward to further discussing our commercial plans for RP1 and pipeline development for RP1 and RP2 at an investor day on June 24th.”

May 21

UroGen Pharma announced the outcome of the meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which discussed the new drug application for investigational drug UGN-102 for intravesical solution. By a narrow margin, the ODAC voted 4 to 5 that the benefit/risk of UGN-102 for intravesical solution was favorable for the treatment of recurrent LG-IR-NMIBC. “While we are disappointed by today’s outcome, we continue to believe our clinical data support UGN-102 for the treatment of recurrent LG-IR-NMIBC, a disease with no FDA-approved therapies,” said Liz Barrett, CEO. “The FDA carefully considers the independent advice from ODAC, and we look forward to working with the FDA as they complete their review of the application for UGN-102.” The ODAC reviewed the body of clinical data supporting the efficacy and safety of UGN-102, including the results from the Phase 3 ENVISION study. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events in the ENVISION trial were dysuria, hematuria, urinary tract infection, pollakiuria, fatigue, and urinary retention, which are typically manageable in routine urologic practice. The ENVISION trial demonstrated a similar safety profile to that observed in other studies of UGN-102. The NDA for UGN-102 is currently under review by the FDA with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act date of June 13, 2025.

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About “Biotech Alert”

The Fly will report on a selection of biotech stocks seeing a surge in interest from retail and financial professional investors, based on data from InvestingChannel.

This Fly exclusive recap reveals the biotech stocks that are seeing a spike in searches among the 20-plus million retail and financial professional investors through InvestingChannel’s online financial news media ecosystem.

This increased attention from the investors may be in response to, or advance of, outsized moves for stocks in the biotech sector, which tend to be volatile and prone to sharp swings in share price around binary events such as clinical study results and FDA approvals.