Another biopharmaceutical that has registered a huge spike this week is Bio Blast Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:ORPN), which more than doubled in price today. The surge was driven by positive results from its HopeMD Phase 2 six-month open-label clinical study in patients with oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD). The drug proved to not only be safe, but also tolerable for the study participants. OPMD remains untreated, but the company will seek to confirm the results obtained in a Phase 2b double blind placebo controlled study expected to start in 2017.
A fund manager that is likely happy with the results is Jacob Gottlieb. His firm, Visium Asset Management, declared holding 844,000 shares of the company as of December 31, making it the largest Bio Blast Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:ORPN) investor of record to date.
On the other hand, we’ve got Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MNK), which is trading down by more than 13% on Wednesday afternoon, adding to the 14.49% tumble seen on Tuesday. The decline was triggered by a tweet from Citron Research, which claimed that the company posed a risk equal to that of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX). Later on Tuesday, the firm’s founder Andrew Left appeared on CNBC and suggested that the company was even worse than Valeant. “At least Valeant can say, ‘Hey, look at our products.’ Mallinckrodt has one product that’s never been tested,” he stated.
Citron’s comments aside, Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MNK) has the support of several major hedge funds. By the end of the fourth quarter, 39 firms in our database were long the stock. The largest of those stakes was held by John Paulson’s Paulson & Co, which disclosed ownership of 8.62 million shares as of December 31.
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Finally, there’s Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU), which is trading down by more than 45% on Wednesday after the company said that it was delaying an interest payment due Tuesday, and that it may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as coal prices and demand continue to plummet, while regulations rise. Management explained that the firm may “not have sufficient liquidity to sustain operations and to continue as a going concern.”
David Iben‘s Kopernik Global Investors is one of the firms doubtlessly disappointed in Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) deteriorating financials, as it disclosed ownership of 1.04 million shares of the company worth more than $8 million as of the end of the fourth quarter.
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Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.
