These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include:

Celyad Oncology (CYAD), 13,500% surge in interest
InflaRx (IFRX), 5,171% surge in interest
Aldeyra (ALDX), 400% surge in interest
Vistagen (VTGN), 305% surge in interest
Adaptive Biotechnologies (ADPT), 299% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

Celyad Oncology is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell, or CAR T, therapies for cancer. The company is developing a pipeline of allogeneic, or off-the-shelf, and autologous, or personalized, CAR T cell therapy candidates for the treatment of both hematological malignancies and solid tumors.

InflaRx is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on applying its proprietary anti-C5a and C5aR technologies to discover and develop first-in-class or best-in-class, potent and specific inhibitors of the complement activation factor known as C5a and its receptor known as C5aR.

Aldeyra is a clinical-stage biotechnology company whose pre-commercial product candidates are reproxalap, a potential treatment for dry eye disease and allergic conjunctivitis, and ADX-2191, a potential treatment for primary vitreoretinal lymphoma, proliferative vitreoretinopathy, and other rare sight-threatening retinal diseases. In addition, Aldeyra is developing other product candidates, including ADX-629 and chemically related molecules, for the potential treatment of systemic and retinal immune-mediated diseases.

Vistagen is a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company whose clinical-stage candidates are targeting multiple types of anxiety and depression. PH94B and PH10 belong to a new class of drugs known as pherines, which are designed with a novel rapid-onset mechanism of action that activates chemosensory neurons in the nasal passages and can impact the olfactory-amygdala neural circuits without systemic uptake or direct activity on CNS neurons in the brain..

Adaptive Biotechnologies is a commercial-stage biotechnology company that applies its platform to partner with biopharmaceutical companies, inform drug development, and develop clinical diagnostics across its two business areas of Minimal Residual Disease and Immune Medicine. The company says its commercial products and clinical pipeline enable the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases and states that its goal is "to develop and commercialize immune-driven clinical products tailored to each individual patient."

Recent news on these stocks:

December 21

InflaRx announced that the company has amended its existing co-development agreement with Staidson BioPharmaceuticals, STS, to support STS in its regulatory approval efforts for its proprietary drug candidate BDB-001 in China. Through the amendment of the existing co-development agreement, InflaRx will receive royalties of 10% on net sales of BDB-001 for the treatment of COVID-19 in China. InflaRx has granted STS an exclusive license for use in China to certain of InflaRx's clinical, manufacturing and regulatory documentation regarding vilobelimab in order to support and facilitate the regulatory filing for BDB-001 for the treatment of severely ill COVID-19 patients with the Chinese National Medical Products Administration, NMPA. Under the existing co-development agreement, BDB-001 is being developed by STS for the treatment of severe COVID-19 and other inflammatory diseases in China. The existing co-development agreement contains an exclusive license restricted to development and commercialization within the territory of China and was granted to STS by InflaRx in 2015. STS is now planning to apply for regulatory approval in China of BDB-001 for the treatment of COVID-19. In connection with amending the co-development agreement, InflaRx also announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement with Staidson Hong Kong Investment Company Limited, an affiliate of Staidson BioPharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., pursuant to which STS will purchase additional ordinary shares of InflaRx for an aggregate amount of $2.5M at a price of $5.00 per share.

Aldeyra Therapeutics announced the submission of a New Drug Application NDA to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ADX-2191 an investigational drug candidate, for the treatment of primary vitreoretinal lymphoma, a rare but potentially fatal cancer with no FDA-approved therapy. The NDA submission is supported by a combination of published literature on the safety and efficacy of methotrexate for the treatment of primary vitreoretinal lymphoma and safety data from the recently completed Phase 3 GUARD Trial of ADX-2191 for the prevention of proliferative vitreoretinopathy. "Compounding methotrexate for intravitreal injection, the current standard of care for primary vitreoretinal lymphoma, poses several challenges for physicians and patients, including risk of infection and increased injection volume, potentially leading to ocular hypertension and corneal inflammation," stated Todd Brady, M.D., Ph.D., Aldeyra's President and CEO. "ADX-2191 is a novel formulation of methotrexate that is designed to be vitreous-compatible and has the potential to be the first marketed drug for patients suffering from primary vitreoretinal lymphoma." ADX-2191 has received FDA Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of primary vitreoretinal lymphoma. In addition, as part of the NDA submission, Aldeyra requested Priority Review Designation, which reduces the review period during which the FDA aims to take action on an NDA to within 6 months, compared to 10 months under standard review. A Type C meeting with the FDA to discuss the completion of clinical development of ADX-2191 for the prevention of proliferative vitreoretinopathy is planned for the first half of 2023, and results from the Phase 2 clinical trial of ADX-2191 in retinitis pigmentosa are expected in the first half of 2023.

Celyad provided an update on its Celyad 2.0 business strategy which has been adopted and implemented over the last few months. In keeping with this strategy, the company intends to focus on maximizing its valuable intellectual property estate, and strengthening its research focus. The company has compiled a foundational and broad IP estate that controls key aspects of developing therapies in the allogeneic cell therapy space. The patents around allogeneic CAR T-cell therapies and NKG2D-based therapies provide an avenue to develop intellectual property programs and to partner with outside parties around the licensing of these patents. In addition to IP partnering transactions, Celyad 2.0 will prioritize discovery research in areas of expertise where it can leverage the differentiated nature of its platforms. The company is implementing a differentiated and innovative strategy, tackling the major current limitations of CAR T-cell therapies. This strategy includes: Multiplexing approach of the short hairpin RNA, or shRNA, platform, allowing multiple genes, including essential and functional genes, to be modulated simultaneously; Dual CAR development of a next-generation NKG2D-based CAR which may help to overcome resistance and immune escape often observed with traditional single targeting approaches; and development of B7-H6-targeting immunotherapies as the company believes that B7-H6 is an underappreciated target that could change the paradigm of cell therapy due to its broad expression in a large variety of cancers. Celyad Oncology is of the opinion that it will potentially create more shareholder value by licensing its patent estate and further strengthening its research efforts to improve the differentiated nature of its platforms. Based on a strategic and financial review, the company has decided to discontinue the development of its remaining clinical program CYAD-211. There were no safety concerns leading to this decision and all patients previously treated with CYAD-211 will continue to receive their protocol-defined follow-up. The key data points of the program are as follows: 19 r/r MM patients have been treated with CYAD-211 in the IMMUNICY-1 trial which was developed to validate shRNA technology in the clinic; the observed safety profile, including the lack of observed Graft-versus-Host disease, provides proof-of-concept for the use of shRNA technology for allogeneic CAR Ts; out of 17 evaluable patients, a partial response was achieved in five patients. One patient was recently re-treated with a second dose of CYAD-211 after having reached stable disease post first infusion and enhanced lymphodepletion did not seem to improve clinical activity nor persistence of the cells post-infusion. The company will take part in several conferences including The World Oncology Cell Therapy Congress in April and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer's, or SITC, 38th Annual Meeting in November; and the company will provide updates on the potential proof-of-concept of the dual CAR and multiplexing research programs and on business development in the second quarter of 2023.

Piper Sandler analyst David Westenberg upgraded Adaptive Biotechnologies to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $14, up from $7.50. If the company can grow minimal residual disease revenue at 50% as is expected in 2023, the stock would deserve a 10-times revenue multiple on its MRD business, Westenberg tells investors in a research note. In addition, the analyst thinks estimates and the stock have upside from near term immune medicine partnership milestone and other collaboration revenue. The long term "dream-the-dream" of an annual immune system scan "represents a free call option," writes Westenberg. He likes Adaptive's valuation following a "rough" 2022 and the potential near term uptake of minimal residual disease.

About “Biotech Alert”

The Fly will report on a selection of biotech stocks seeing a surge in interest from retail and financial professional investors, based on data from InvestingChannel.

This Fly exclusive recap reveals the biotech stocks that are seeing a spike in searches among the 15-plus million retail and financial professional investors through InvestingChannel's online financial news media ecosystem.

This increased attention from the investors may be in response to, or advance of, outsized moves for stocks in the biotech sector, which tend to be volatile and prone to sharp swings in share price around binary events such as clinical study results and FDA approvals.