Why Shares of Aura Biosciences Jumped This Week

What happened

Shares of clinical-stage biotech company Aura Biosciences (AURA 1.98%) were up 11.2% as of Thursday afternoon, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The stock closed last week at $10.13 and climbed to as high as $12.31 on Tuesday. Aura's 52-week low is $9.43, and its 52-week high is $24.83. Its shares are down more than 40% over the past year.

So what

Aura focuses on virus-like drug conjugates to treat multiple cancers, particularly cancers of the eye. Its lead candidate, bel-sar (belzupacap sarotalocan), is a virus-type particle with an anti-cancer agent, designed to kill cancer cells while activating an immune response. The drug is in a phase 3 trial as a first-line treatment for early-stage choroidal melanoma, a type of eye cancer. The current standard of treatment for the disease is radiation, but that can cause major vision loss.

One possible reason the company's stock is rising is its announcement this week that CEO Elisabet de los Pinos would take part in several upcoming investor conferences. That signaled to investors that the company may be seeing good progress in its phase 3 trial for bel-sar, which could become the company's first marketed therapy. With a low share price and a market cap of only $409 million, the stock's share price can be volatile.

Now what

Like any clinical-stage biotech company, investing in Aura assumes certain risks. The company isn't profitable yet and has only five programs in its pipeline. The next application for bel-sar is likely to be choroidal metastasis, an eye disease with no approved therapies. The disease generally forms as cancers elsewhere and spreads to the eye via blood flow. The company had said it planned to file an investigational new drug application (IND) with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the fourth quarter of 2022, but no word on that has been announced yet.

Bear in mind, too, that the company doesn't have any revenue. In the third quarter, it lost $15.9 million and said it has $111.5 million cash -- enough, it said, to fund operations into 2024.