Following positive feedback from the FDA around a potential approval of its treatment of Huntington’s disease, the share price of Uniqure rose by 110% yesterday.
This large increase in the share price is not a surprise. There is no treatment available for this severe disease which causes nerve cells in the brain to gradually die.
The gene therapy treatment of Uniqure has the potential to generate multi-billions of euros in revenues, while the company’s valuation on the stock exchange, even after the news, is only $ 250 million above its net cash position. At the closing of the market, the market cap was $ 746 million. An interesting detail is that yesterday’s trading volume of Uniqure was 79x its average volume.
Before the news, Uniqure made up 6,6% of the Genetics fund and 3,1% of the Life Sciences fund.
Aescap Life Sciences is currently up around 18% for 2024. Aescap Genetics performance has gone up over the last few months but is still underwater at -3% for the year. Delays of gene therapy approvals earlier in 2024 (caused by this market segment growing so rapidly and the FDA not being able to hire enough staff to process all of the clinical data) discouraged some investors from investing in gene therapy companies. In November the head of the FDA’s gene therapy division stated that those delays should be behind us.
Uniqure has 1 gene therapy on the market. Next to Huntington’s medicine, 3 other medicines are being tested in humans. For 2025 we expect Uniqure to go through multiple significant value-generating events.