NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 9, 2017 / The Biotech Industry has had a strong start to the year after a rocky 2016. The iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index ETF (IBB) and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) year-to-date have posted gains of 5.6 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively. Investor focus for the industry now shifts to the 35th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the largest health care investing event of the year.

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"Biotech has historically outperformed the broader market during The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference," biotech analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote in a note to clients. J.P. Morgan's annual health-care conference is held on January 9-13 in San Francisco.

Research conducted by the firm shows that the NYSE Arca Biotechnology index (BTK), which consists of 30 biotech companies, has exceeded the performance of the S&P 500 Index by almost 3 percent during J.P. Morgan's annual health conference. "We observed that the BTK has outperformed the S&P 500 during JPM week ~81 percent of the time (all but three years)," the report said.

RDInvesting takes a closer look at some popular biotech companies

Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HALO)

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Halozyme Therapeutics' shares gained 6.11 percent to close at $13.38 a share Friday. The stock traded between $12.30 and $13.77 on volume of 9.17 million shares traded. On January 5th, the company announced topline results from the combined analysis of Stages 1 and 2 and Stage 2 alone of its HALO 202 study, a Phase 2 randomized, multi-center clinical trial of lead investigational drug PEGPH20 in combination with ABRAXANE® (nab-paclitaxel) and gemcitabine in stage IV pancreas cancer patients. The study achieved its primary endpoints.

"These findings confirm our confidence in the development of PEGPH20 in this difficult to treat cancer," said Dr. Helen Torley, president and CEO. "We are pleased by the overall consistency of both the efficacy and safety data which are supportive of our ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial, HALO 301, currently underway at more than 160 sites worldwide."

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN)

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Geron's shares gained 5.00 percent to close at $2.31 a share Friday. The stock traded between $2.20 and $2.42 on volume of 2.50 million shares traded. Geron is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of a telomerase inhibitor, imetelstat, in hematologic myeloid malignancies. Imetelstat is currently being tested in two clinical trials: IMbark?, a Phase 2 trial in myelofibrosis (MF), and IMerge, a Phase 2/3 trial in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). These clinical trials are being conducted by Janssen Biotech, Inc., under the terms of an exclusive worldwide collaboration and license agreement.

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