We'll keep an eye on this one, quite a rally taking it from $7 to $13 in two weeks (the chart is self-updating):
What does it do?
Assembly Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company, develops oral therapeutics for the treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and to restore health to a dysbiotic microbiome in the United States. It is involved in developing core protein allosteric modulators that modulate the HBV core protein, a polyfunctional viral protein at various points in the viral lifecycle. The company also develops microbiome program, a platform that includes the identification and selection process to strain isolation and growth under cGMP conditions, and a patent pending delivery system, GEMICEL, which allows for targeted oral delivery of live biologic and conventional therapies to the lower gastrointestinal tract. Its lead drug candidate from the platform is AB-M101, is in development for the treatment of C. difficile- infections. The company was formerly known as Ventrus Biosciences, Inc. and changed its name to Assembly Biosciences, Inc. in June 2014. Assembly Biosciences, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is based in Carmel, Indiana.
This was end of May (Barrons):
Gilead Sciences (GILD) reported that the hepatitis-B treatment its developing with GlobeImmune (GBIM) failed in a drug trial. RBC’s Michael Yee and team look for the silver lining in the cloud:
GS-4774 in partnership with GlobeImmune for Hep B missed the Phase II primary endpoint of S-antigen reduction at 24 weeks. The good news with this T-cell activating drug is some slight evidence of a dose response and better effect over longer period of time – but in our view it’s not impressive enough and Gilead Sciences will need more options. Their 2nd program GS-9620 in Phase II is interesting but we also think this won’t be enough and down the road we predict Gilead Sciences will have to do more deals in this space and is probably watching/tracking two leading albeit early players in Hep B: Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (TKMR) and Assembly Biosciences (ASMB).
Some handy statistics:
- They produce no revenue or debt
- 17M shares out
- They have $63.5M in cash, which on current spending will last them almost two years
- Very small short position (160K) so it's not a short-squeeze
Either some break-through, milestone with regulatory trajectory or take-over possibility. We'll try to find out but perhaps others are familiar with the situation?
The latest investor presentation. It's all promising but very early days, they won't have revenues for quite some time.