What happened
Shares of the clinical-stage gene therapy company Tenaya Therapeutics (TNYA -6.39%) rose by a staggering 49% over the first three and a half days of trading this week, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The biotech's shares caught fire in response to a wave of bargain buying in biotech, sparked by the buyouts of BELLUS Health and Prometheus Biosciences for enormous premiums earlier this week.
So what
Tenaya is an early-stage gene therapy player focusing on the development of treatments for heart disease. Recently, the company won an approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin a phase 1b trial for TN-201 as a potential treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) caused by mutations in the MYBPC3 gene. This mutation is the most common genetic cause of HCM, according to the company.
Wall Street analysts are expecting big things from the small-cap gene therapy company. Underscoring this point, the consensus 12-month price target on Tenaya's stock implies an upside potential of 370% from current levels. With this bargain proposition in mind, it's not surprising to see shares perk up as investors hunt for deals in the out-of-favor biotech space.
Now what
Is Tenaya stock still a buy? It all depends on your comfort with risk. It is far from the first biotech to try to use a gene therapy to treat various forms of heart disease. So far, though, this cutting-edge approach hasn't yielded much in the way of positive results.
That doesn't mean that Tenaya can't succeed where others have failed, but this is a high-risk growth play to be sure.