Health and Healthcare

Why Juno Therapeutics Is Soaring

Chris Lange

Published: January 17, 2018 10:15 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:25 am

Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO) saw its shares skyrocket early on Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) was in talks to acquire the company. This comes days after Celgene announced that it would create a more robust portfolio for its blood-cancer drugs.

Although no real details about this deal were available, investors are clamoring to send Juno higher in anticipation.

This comes about a week after Celgene agreed to buy Impact Biomedicines. According to the deal, Celgene will pay $1.1 billion upfront and the firm could be on the hook for billions of dollars of additional payments if Impact makes certain milestones.

Juno is known for its groundbreaking cancer treatment. The firm is pioneering a treatment known as CAR-T that takes a patient’s own immune cells, modifies them and then uses them to fight tumors.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

If Juno’s CAR-T pans out, Celgene’s efforts to remain a big player in the blood-cancer market would get a shot in the arm just as the company braces for Revlimid losses. Rivals have been seeking to sell generic versions of the multiple myeloma drug, which accounted for $6 billion of Celgene’s $9.5 billion in worldwide net product sales during the first nine months of 2017. During the period, Revlimid had nearly $4 billion in U.S. sales.

Excluding Wednesday’s move, Juno shares are only flat in 2018. However, over the past 52 weeks, the stock is up 128%.

Shares of Juno traded up more than 48% to $67.62 Wednesday morning, with a $56.21 consensus analyst price target and a 52-week range of $18.99 to $70.00.

Celgene shares were last seen down more than 1% at $103.52, with a consensus price target of $123.86 and a 52-week range of $94.55 to $147.17.