Regulus Therapeutics Inc (RGLS), Trevena Inc (TRVN), Juno Therapeutics Inc (JUNO): RA Capital’s Top New Biotech Picks

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Second on the list is Trevena Inc (NASDAQ:TRVN), in which Kolchinksy opened a 2.97 million share stake in during the fourth quarter. This is another stock that proved popular among funds during the quarter, with four opening new positions, and three with existing positions expanding them greatly, while just two closed their old positions. Kolchinsky also had the largest position in Trevena among tracked funds, with Stephen Dubois’s Camber Capital Management having a slightly smaller one of 2.87 million shares, also newly opened last quarter.

Trevena Logo

Trevena is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company working on treatments that target G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs). Those receptors are involved in various diseases, giving the treatments a potentially vast range of uses. In current stages of testing are treatments that target acute heart failure, as well as two treatments that treat moderate to severe acute pain; one orally, the other intravenously. Trevena shares have had a rocky ride since the company’s IPO early in 2014, shedding over 50% between the middle of March and the middle of May.

Lastly is Juno Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:JUNO), which launched its IPO in the latter half of December. That didn’t stop Kolchinsky and several other fund managers from initiating positions, which in Kolchinsky’s case was a 280,000 share position. In fact, funds were extremely bullish on the stock, with 27 of them holding new positions in less than two weeks. The largest of these was VHCP Management’s 1.75 million share position, which also happens to be its largest position now.

The funds seem to have known what they were doing, as Juno has soared 42.86% since its IPO, though it is down more than 18% from a high of $61.51 on January 12. The clinical stage company has a mission to use patients’ own immune systems as their first line of defense, developing cell-based treatments that will genetically engineer T cells to combat the cancer cells in one’s body. Early trial data has shown some positive results, with the shrinkage of tumors in certain kinds of cancer.

Disclosure: None

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