According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stephen DuBois‘s Camber Capital Management initiated a position in the newly-listed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CATB), reporting ownership of some 928,746 shares that are valued at $13.0 million based on the current stock price. The holding represents about 6.38% of the company’s outstanding shares.
Stephen DuBois launched Camber in 2006 with the intention to focus on the healthcare sector. The fund employs a bottom-up stock picking approach to hunt for value stocks in the micro-cap and small-cap universe. Regulatory assets under the fund’s management currently stand at $2.21 billion while the market value of its public equity portfolio stood at $1.4 billion at the end of March. The healthcare sector represented 81% of the holdings, while the rest was represented by the finance sector.
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Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CATB) develops novel therapeutics based on its proprietary Safely Metabolized And Rationally Targeted, or SMART, linker technology. The concept is based on treating diseases by simultaneously modulating multiple biological targets in one or more related disease pathways. Initially the company is focusing on rare diseases such as Duchene muscular dystrophy, DMD, which affects about 1 in 3,600 boys and results in muscle degeneration and premature death. In this regard Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CATB)’s treatment for DMD, CAT-1004 recently got a breakthrough as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bestowed Fast Track designation on the drug owing to promising pre-clinical studies.
The designation will allow Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CATB) to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) on a rolling basis and greatly accelerate the FDA’s review process by allowing the company to frequently communicate with the FDA regarding all aspects of its clinical development. Provided that certain criteria are met, drugs with Fast Track Designation could get early approval as well. Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CATB) plans to report on top-line Phase 2 data for CAT-1004 in late 2016, which is dependent on patient enrollment for the trial.
The company’s most advanced preclinical product candidate is CAT-4001, which uses SMART technology to activate the Nrf2 pathway, a protein that works inside the cells, controlling the body’s response to cellular stress and oxidative damage. The molecule can potentially treat rare neurodegenerative diseases such as Friedreich’s ataxia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, commonly referred to also as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Since its IPO in late June, Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CATB)’s stock has appreciated by 7%. The biotechnology industry has been a strong performer lately, posting gains of more than 17% year-to-date and over 50% over the past year. Healthcare-focused hedge funds that have been cashing in on the rise of the sector include names like Samuel Isaly‘s Orbimed Advisors, and Adage Capital Management, which is managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson.
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