Important points
French biotech company Avivax has been the best-performing stock on the Stoxx 600 this year by a wide margin. The stock is up 1,441% so far this year, an impressive number for a clinical-stage biotech that is notoriously volatile and risky. By comparison, the next best performing stock is British mining company Fresniro, which is up 373% since the beginning of the year. Avivax’s bull run began on July 23, with a 510% rally, the day after the company announced data from a late-stage trial of obefazimod, its lead asset for the ulcerative colitis treatment. Since then, the stock has continued to rise on the back of investor optimism about the company’s pipeline and unconfirmed rumors about a takeover offer from a larger peer. ABVX-FR YTD line Avivax stock price skyrocketed in 2025. “We’re always (in talks) with the big drug companies,” CEO Marc de Garridel said Tuesday on CNBC’s “European Early Edition,” but stressed that it’s largely outside the company’s control. “We can’t control what big companies do, but we’re certainly excited about the work we’re doing, and we’ve once again been hailed by the medical community as potentially the next standard of care for ulcerative colitis,” he said. The trial results, published in July, tested the drug for eight weeks in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis, a type of chronic inflammatory bowel disease. The company plans to report full-year treatment results in the second quarter of 2026. Catalyst-rich 2026 Avivax is developing many potential catalysts in 2026. For its lead asset, obefazimod, Avivax plans to apply for regulatory approval next year. “Hopefully, that means a launch in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2027,” de Garridel said. In addition to ulcerative colitis, the company also has a mid-term program for Crohn’s disease, another inflammatory disease of the digestive system. The company plans to report results from these trials by the end of 2026, but the company is bleeding money. Because it does not generate revenue, its net loss for the first nine months of 2025 was 254 million euros ($298.6 million), significantly wider than last year’s loss of 137 million euros. De Garidel told CNBC that this was largely due to the cost of conducting a one-year clinical trial of obefazimod. The company announced after the market closed on Monday that research and development expenses had increased from 108 million euros to 133 million euros in 2024. Avivax’s share price had fallen about 8% by mid-morning on Tuesday, making it the worst-performing stock in the pan-European blue-chip index. Avivax raised nearly $750 million this summer through a public offering of American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, and De Garridel said the company could raise money through the end of 2027. Still, there is speculation that Avivax is considering selling the business. Those rumors further boosted the stock price, according to a Reuters report that identified U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly as a potential suitor. CNBC has reached out to Eli Lilly and Avivax for comment. M&A activity in the biotech sector has also accelerated significantly in recent months as many headwinds for biopharmaceuticals ease, including price pressure in the US and the threat of high tariffs for the sector. The annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, held in San Francisco from January 12th to 15th, is a major event where companies frequently make announcements. At the conference, Avivax will try to “explain why the ulcerative colitis market will actually grow much faster than we thought because of the characteristics of obefazimod and possibly other competing drugs,” according to the CEO. —CNBC’s Silvia Amaro contributed to this report
