2 Biopharmaceuticals With Huge Upside Potential: Galena Biopharma Inc (GALE), Oncolytics Biotech, Inc. (USA) (ONCY)

Galena Biopharma

Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) is a biopharmaceutical company involved in the discovery and development of therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. The primary candidate of the company is a peptide based vaccine called NeuVax. The drug aims to treat breast cancer patients who achieve remission. The drug aims to delay or prevent the recurrence of breast cancer in such patients.  NeuVax harnesses the immune system of the patient to stop the recurrence of any cancer cells. The drug has the potential to treat prostate, bladder, breast, colon, pancreatic and ovarian cancer.

The stock of Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) has fluctuated a lot during the last few years and has given a return of 63% to investors. The entire valuation of Galena is currently dependent on the success of NeuVax in clinical trials. The drug was tested in 200 breast cancer patients in phase II clinical trials for a period of 5 years, the results showed NeuVax to be effective and safe. Two additional studies for the drug are underway, which are as follows:

i)    Phase 3 trial on 700 patients

ii)    Phase 2 trial involving 300 patients which tests the combination of Herceptin and NeuVax

Despite recent rallies the stock still has a lot of potential upside. The mean sell side target price on Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) is $4.5, which is more than a 100% return on current price levels. Galena is also an attractive acquisition target and has pretty strong partnership agreement with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA). The generics giant has agreed to commercialize NeuVax in Israel. In addition to this commercialization agreement, the company has also provided NeuVax with at least four testing sites in Israel for its Phase III trials. Teva is already suffering from expiring patents with its major drug Copaxone under threat from generics. Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) has a market capitalization of only $137 million which makes it any easy target for Big-Pharma players like Teva.

The article 2 Biopharmaceuticals With Huge Upside Potential originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Mohsin Saeed.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.