NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 18, 2017 / Despite the recent sell-off triggered by the recent health-care bill that is meant to take the place of the Affordable Care Act, the Biotech Industry has continued to outperform the broader markets in 2017. The Biotech Industry has benefited from a speedier FDA approval process in 2017. There has been 20 new Novel Drug Approvals so far in 2017, compared to just 22 new approvals in all of 2016.The iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index ETF and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF have posted year-to-date gains of 8.75 and 15.85 percent, respectively, compared to gains of 4.27 percent and 5.28 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index, however both the ETFs fell sharply on Wednesday along with the major fall in broader market.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

Exelixis, Inc.
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=EXEL

Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=FOLD

Exelixis' shares dropped 7.88 percent to close at $19.86 a share on Wednesday. The stock traded between $19.55 and $21.33 on volume of 8.71 million shares traded. In March, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted cabozantinib orphan drug designation for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The company reported a net income of $16.7 million on total revenues of $80.9 million for the first quarter of 2017. Cash and cash equivalents, short- and long-term investments and long-term restricted cash and investments totaled $475.8 million at March 31, 2017. Shares of Exelixis have gained approximately 33.2 percent year-to-date.

"During the first quarter of 2017, we reached the important milestone for our shareholders of achieving profitability based on operations. In addition, we further advanced cabozantinib's commercialization and clinical development through our ongoing strong execution on the CABOMETYX U.S. launch, made additional progress in our preparations to submit a sNDA for previously untreated patients with advanced RCC, entered into important clinical development collaborations that will evaluate cabozantinib in combination with leading immunotherapies, and granted Japanese rights to a new cabozantinib partner, Takeda," commented Michael M. Morrissey, Ph.D., President and CEO of Exelixis.

Access RDI's Exelixis Research Report at:
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=EXEL

Amicus Therapeutics' shares declined 4.06 percent to close at $7.57 a share on Wednesday. The stock traded between $7.57 and $7.86 on volume of 3.45 million shares traded. Net loss was $55.0 million, or $0.39 per share, for the first quarter of 2017, compared to a net loss of $43.7 million, or $0.35 per share, for the first quarter 2016. Shares of Amicus Therapeutics have gained approximately 52.31 percent year-to-date.

On May 15th, the company announced positive functional data from initial patients in a global Phase 1/2 study of patients with Pompe disease. "We are very pleased to see improvements in six minute walk distance and other measures of motor function in both naïve and ERT-switch patients, as well as stability or improvements in forced vital capacity. The consistency and magnitude of improvements exceeded our expectations and follow the initial improvements seen on key biomarkers of muscle damage and disease substrate," said John F. Crowley, Chairman and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics.

Access RDI's Amicus Therapeutics Research Report at:
https://ub.rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=FOLD

Our Actionable Research on Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXEL) and Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) can be downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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SOURCE: RDInvesting.com