Halozyme Soars After Announcing Deal With Pfizer

Shares of Halozyme Therapeutics

have surged during Friday's trading session despite a broad market sell-off. Late in the day, the stock was trading up almost 27 percent to $6.99. Shares opened the session at $6.36. The company announced a deal with Pfizer

to develop as many as six injectable medicines. The company uses human enzymes to modify biotechnology treatments so that they can be administered through an injection. The agreement between the two companies includes a license to develop two specific treatments along with the right for Pfizer to choose up to four other potential medicines. Halozyme will receive an $8 million upront payment and the potential to earn future fees of up to $507 million, according to Bloomberg. “What this does is just expand the universe of when people think about how this technology can be used for biologics,” Gregory Frost, Halozyme's chief executive officer, said in an interview. “On the partnership side, this certainly warms things up, but I think folks have had a lot of interest in the pharma space for our technology in general.” Jose Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, a Pfizer senor vice president, said that the deal “has the potential to enhance Pfizer's ability to optimize treatments for patients." After the large rally in the stock, HALO remains down better than 26 percent on the year.