We recently published a list of 10 Best Low Priced Biotech Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) stands against other best low priced biotech stocks to buy now.

Is Now the Time to Buy Biotech Stocks?

On May 8, Michael Yee, Senior Biotech Analyst at Jefferies, appeared on CNBC to discuss how tariffs and policy risks are pressuring the biotech industry, while simultaneously iterating that low valuations in the sector may present buying opportunities once the uncertainty clears.

Talking about the broader impact of tariffs on the biotech sector, he said that the estimated tariff rate would be around 50%, while the negative EPS impact would be around -4-5%. According to Yee, the sector is facing several challenges that have caused significant pressure and anxiety among biotech investors. One of them is definitely sector-specific tariffs. The 50% estimation is a manageable impact for many of the biotech companies, but there are also other challenges being floated. Another factor is the most favored nations that could drop drug prices by as much as 40% to 50%, making it a related impact. Assuming all these impacts are going into place, there are definitely uncertain downside risks to the model.

However, the takeaway is that many of these stocks are down more than 20-30% and, in fact, are trading at a decade-low P/E multiple. Therefore, while these uncertainties may be out there over the next few weeks or months, the stocks are expected to move higher after that. If we look back at some other stocks with tariffs, many are obviously higher off the bottoms. They have thus fallen to an attractive valuation, which is why there might be an opportunity to buy them.

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Does the US Pay More For Drugs Than Other Countries?

Shedding light on the most favored nation policy, Yee said it is not new. It is also not a new concept that the US, on average, pays around 40% to 50% more for drugs as compared to the basket of other, say, five to ten major developed nations. The country also gets its drugs faster, and is the home of innovation.

Many of the pharmaceutical company executives over the past few weeks pointed out that most of those countries are also facing downside issues because of R&D investments, getting the drugs years later, and obviously, the countries aren’t benefiting from access to any of these drugs. However, the United States government does negotiate 15-20 drugs per year and will be doing that for the next decade.

Our Methodology

We sifted through stock screeners, financial media reports, and ETFs to compile a list of 50 low-priced biotech stocks and then chose the top 10 with the highest number of hedge fund holders as of Q4 2024. We sourced the hedge fund sentiment data from Insider Monkey’s database. The list is ordered in ascending order of hedge fund sentiment.

Note: The data was recorded on May 9.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 363.5% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 208 percentage points (see more details here).

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Stock Price: $1.75

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) is a biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes cell therapies as novel cancer immunotherapy products. Its lead product candidate is LN-144, an autologous adoptive cell therapy for metastatic melanoma. The company ranks third on our list of the top low-priced biotech stocks to invest in now.

On May 8, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) reported its fiscal Q1 2025 earnings, with total product revenue reaching $49.3 million. The company also revised its full-year revenue guidance of $250 million to $300 million, down from the previous range of $450 million – $475 million. It is also expecting regulatory approvals for its product Amtagvi, that treats a type of skin cancer, in Canada, the EU, and the UK.

Although Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) underwent a net loss of $116.2 million in fiscal Q1 2025, it maintained a strong cash position of $366 million. Management expects it to fund operations well into H2 2026, bringing a positive light to its operations. It is also expanding its treatment network and manufacturing capacity, with more than 80 US ATCs and plans for international market expansion.

In light of such favorable conditions, Mizuho Securities analyst Salim Syed maintained a Buy rating on Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) on May 9, setting a price target of $10.00.

Overall, IOVA ranks 3rd on our list of the best low priced biotech stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential for IOVA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than IOVA but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.