The FDA will potentially accelerate its approval of INBX's rare lung disease treatment
The shares of Inhibrx Inc (NASDAQ:INBX) are soaring today, up 41.1% at $28.48 at last glance, after the company alluded to potentially accelerated U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its treatment for rare lung disease. Jefferies noted that this is the best-case scenario for the treatment, called INBRX-101, which is being developed to treat patients with emphysema due to alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency.
Wall Street has been pessimistic towards the equity prior to today, and it appears that sentiment carried over into the options pits as well. Puts have greatly outweighed calls, as the latter has been virtually nonexistent. Today, however, 1,576 calls have crossed the tape, which is 175 times the intraday average, alongside 1,466 puts -- six times what's typically seen at this point. The October 30 call is the most popular, with new positions being bought to open there.
On the charts, today's pop has INBX trading at its highest level since January, though the stock is still down 36.3% since the start of the year. The equity is also breaking above pressure at the 200-day moving average, which kept a lid on the shares' August rally.
It's also worth noting that short interest makes up 13.3% of the stock's available float. It would take roughly seven days to buy back these bearish bets, at Inhibrx stock's average daily pace of trading.