What happened
Biotech stocks took an absolute beating last month. Shares of the rare-disease company Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD -3.51%), for instance, lost over 13% of their value in December, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The silver lining, though, is that this drastic decline wasn't triggered by a company-specific event. Amicus' shares simply trended lower with the overall market last month. As such, it's not entirely surprising that this mid-cap biotech stock has rebounded in tandem with the broader market early in the new year. Amicus' shares, in fact, are up by an astounding 18.8% over just the first 10 days of trading in 2019.
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So what
However, Amicus' strong showing in the first few weeks of the new year isn't solely the result of the market's abrupt change in direction. Investors also appear to be excited about the company's newly released financial guidance for the year. The key highlight here is the projected sales growth for the company's Fabry disease therapy -- known as Galafold -- in fiscal year 2019. Although the therapy wasn't approved until late 2018, the company believes Galafold will go on to rake in somewhere between $160 million and $180 million in sales this year.
Now what
Galafold's strong commercial launch is important for two overarching reasons. First, this rosy outlook dispels any doubts that the drug would have trouble living up to expectations, which is always a concern for early commercial stage operations like Amicus. Second, Galafold's surging sales will go a long way toward covering the company's other clinical activities, including its newly acquired pipeline of gene therapies for rare diseases and its high-value Pompe disease candidate, AT-GAA.
All told, bargain hunters have clearly already taken advantage of Amicus' downturn last month -- evinced by the stock's sharp reversal over the past few weeks. But, with a host of promising new rare-disease therapies under development and Galafold's U.S. commercial launch off to a great start, this red-hot biotech stock might still be worth adding to your portfolio right now.
Check out the latest Amicus Therapeutics earnings call transcript.
