Pharmacyclics, Inc. (PCYC), Horizon Pharma PLC (HZNP), Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (ASPX): Hedge Fund’s Cashing In On Highest Q1 Gainers

AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) outbid Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and paid $20 billion for Pharmacyclics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCYC) last month. The focus of the deal is the anticancer drug Imbruvica which targets B-cell malignancies and is being jointly researched by Pharmacyclics and Janssen Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson.

The second healthcare stock on our list is Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP), which gained about 101.47% during the first three months of 2014. A total of 28 funds had an aggregate investment of $597.56 million in the company versus 23 firms with $330.06 million in the previous quarter. A fund manager who profited the most from this price hike in the company’s shares was James E Flynn of Deerfield Management as Horizon was one of his top stock picks. The firm held some 11.70 million shares valued at $150.8 million at the end of the fourth quarter.

Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) recently announced that it was buying Hyperion Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:HPTX) for $1.1 billion. According to a statement by the company’s CEO, Timothy Walbert, he expects Hyperion’s orphan disease drugs RAVICTI and BUPHENYL to add $100 million to the company’s adjusted EBIDTA for 2016. Piper Jaffray has recently upgraded the company from ‘Neutral’ to ‘Overweight’ and set a new price target of $31.

The last company on our list of top gainers for the first quarter, Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX) appreciated by a hefty 91.06% on the heels of a $3.2 billion all-cash merger deal by the Israel-based pharmaceutical company, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA). Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX)’s main drug is SD-809 or Austendo which is designed to lower side effects like depression and anxiety, caused by the use of a similar drug Xenazine,  among Huntington’s patients. In February this year the company completed enrollment of 90 patients for phase 2/3 clinical trial to test the efficacy of Austendo in treating movement disorders among psychiatric patients. The disorder is caused by the drugs used to treat illnesses such as schizophrenia.

The popularity of the company among hedge funds rose to 3.1% in the fourth quarter with 23 funds having invested some $280.13 million, from 2.4% in the third quarter which saw 16 funds with $131.09 million invested in Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX). Deerfield Management bagged another victory as it increased its stake in Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX) by 18% during the fourth quarter to 2.95 million shares and  added 1.5 million shares in February, currently holding some 4.4 million shares.

Disclosure: none