Canopy Growth, Vidac Pharma, BioNTech - Opportunities after the correction

Canopy Growth - Little momentum

The rocket-like rise of 450% within 6 weeks in mid-March was followed by an equally sharp sell-off to the current price of CAD 11.99. With the announcement of the figures for the fourth quarter and the financial year, investors were hoping for a turn for the better and a continuation of the interim rally.

However, one of the leading companies in the cannabis sector, which focuses on the development, production and distribution of cannabis products for medical and recreational purposes, failed to provide any impetus. The shares lost more than 15% week-on-week and are about to test their prominent horizontal resistance at CAD 11.19. A break is likely to take the volatile share into the single-digit price range for the time being.

The company from Smiths Falls in Ontario reported a significantly lower loss of minus CAD 1.03 per share in the final quarter of the financial year compared with minus CAD 14.27 in the same period of the previous year. However, this meant that Canopy Growth fell short of analyst forecasts, which assumed a loss of only minus CAD 0.443.

With a loss per share of CAD 8.79, the Canadians also fell short of analyst estimates for the year as a whole, who had predicted a loss of just CAD 6.766 per share.

Vidac Pharma - Stepping on the gas

The wave of takeovers in the biotech sector continues unabated. One candidate for an acquisition could be the biopharmaceutical company Vidac Pharma, which is valued at just EUR 8.88 million. The reasons for this are apparent, as the Company is pioneering a new class of cancer treatments. Vidac Pharma owns 7 patent families. Their strategy is to transform the tumor's microenvironment in order to kill it without damaging the surrounding normal tissue.

Vidac Pharma's focus here is on its lead product, VDA-1102, which is designed to combat a cancerous disease of the white blood cells known as lymphocytes. The drug candidate has already received approval for the second phase of clinical Phase 2a, which has a duration of 3 to 4 months. Promising results were already reported at the beginning of the year based on 50% of the test subjects. The study phase is expected to last between 3 and 4 months, and the innovator led by Prof. Max Herzberg expects final results before the end of this financial year.

In addition to VDA-1102, another promising candidate from Vidac Pharma is making positive headlines. With their latest cancer therapeutic candidate, VDA-1275, the Company has advanced another hot prospect into the next phase of preclinical drug studies. The drug has shown strong synergistic effects in combination with standard therapy for solid tumors in various laboratory trials.

Vidac Pharma's shares, which are listed in Stuttgart and Hamburg, have so far received little attention from the broader stock market audience. However, if the positive study results continue, this situation will likely change quickly. Interested investors should, however, strictly limit their exposure to the stock.

BioNTech - Upward trend ended?

The chart of the former stock market star has been on a recovery course since the low on March 20, when the Mainz-based biotech company announced disappointing annual figures with drastic declines in revenue and earnings. After hitting a low for the year of USD 85.21, BioNTech shares briefly broke above both the upward trend that has been in place since August 2023 and the 200 EMA, currently at USD 99.82, last week, but then bounced off the resistances amid high volumes. If this area is sustainably overcome, the next price target would be USD 117.40, the high for the year to date. The share must decisively defend the level of its yearly low as it moves southward.

The report published at the weekend could provide positive impetus. Accordingly, partners BioNTech and the Danish biotech company Genmab A/S presented initial data from an ongoing Phase 2 trial (NCT05117242) with the biospecific antibody investigational drug Acasunlimab (DuoBody-PD-L1x4-1BB) at the American Society of Clinical Oncology ("ASCO") 2024 Annual Meeting, which is taking place from May 31 to June 4, 2024 in Chicago, IL.

The study will evaluate the candidate BNT311 (GEN1046), both as monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab, in patients with PD-L1-positive metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose disease has progressed after one or more prior anti-PD-L1 lines of therapy. At the end of the observation period, data showed a 12-month overall survival rate of 69%, a median overall survival of 17.5 months and an overall response rate of 30% (confirmed ORR 17%) in the cohort treated every six weeks with a combination of acasunlimab and pembrolizumab.

"The results of this ongoing Phase 2 study are encouraging. The initial results of treatment with acasunlimab in combination with pembrolizumab administered every six weeks suggest a potentially significant effect in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer," said Judith Klimovsky, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Genmab.

BioNTech failed in its initial attempt to break the medium-term downtrend. The cannabis company Canopy Growth was unable to provide any positive impetus for its shares when it published its figures for the 2024 financial year. Vidac Pharma is advancing its preclinical studies with cancer metabolism inhibitor VDA-1275 and could come into the spotlight of Big Pharma.