Acceleron, Fulcrum Therapeutics Ink Deal for Pulmonary Disease

INVA GH FULC

Acceleron Pharma Inc.  announced that it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company Fulcrum Therapeutics, Inc. (FULC - Free Report) to identify small molecules designed to modulate specific pathways associated within the targeted pulmonary disease space.

Per the agreement, Fulcrum is eligible to receive an upfront payment of $10 million, up to $295 million in milestones for the first commercialized product along with $143.5 million in additional milestones for subsequent products. Fulcrum will also receive mid-single-digit-to-low-double-digit tiered royalties on net sales, upon potential approval.

Moreover, Acceleron will have access to Fulcrum's proprietary product engine and target identification platform and be responsible for all the development and commercialization activities for any candidates identified through this deal.

The partnership is looking to combine Fulcrum’s skill in identifying drug targets based on modulation of genetic pathways with Acceleron’s expertise in TGF-beta superfamily signaling, to develop potential disease-modifying therapies.

Shares of Acceleron inched up 2.9% following this news on Monday. In fact, the stock has rallied 20.8% in the past year compared with industry’s increase of 8.8%.

With the aforementioned collaboration deal, Acceleron is looking to strengthen its focus on developing novel therapies for patients with pulmonary diseases.

We remind investors that Acceleron is evaluating sotatercept in a phase II study for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare disease with high unmet medical need. The FDA granted Orphan Drug designation to sotatercept for PAH in September 2019.

Fulcrum too is developing its pipeline candidate losmapimod in a phase II study for treating facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) and other genetically defined diseases.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Acceleron currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the biotech sector include Innoviva, Inc. (INVA - Free Report) and Guardant Health, Inc. (GH - Free Report) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Innoviva’s earnings estimates have moved 25.2% north for 2020 over the past 60 days.

Guardant Health’s loss per share estimates have narrowed 8.5% for 2020 over the past 60 days. The stock has skyrocketed 107.2% so far this year.

Today's Best Stocks from Zacks

Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through Q3 2019, while the S&P 500 gained +39.6%, five of our strategies returned +51.8%, +57.5%, +96.9%, +119.0%, and even +158.9%.

This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – Q3 2019, while the S&P averaged +5.6% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.1% per year.

See their latest picks free >>

Zacks Names "Single Best Pick to Double"

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

It’s a little-known chemical company that’s up 65% over last year, yet still dirt cheap. With unrelenting demand, soaring 2022 earnings estimates, and $1.5 billion for repurchasing shares, retail investors could jump in at any time.

This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.

Free: See Our Top Stock and 4 Runners Up >>