Biotech Stocks Facing FDA Decision In October

(RTTNews) - The bench to bedside journey of drugs is fraught with challenges. It is estimated that only 5 in 5,000 compounds that enter preclinical testing make it to human testing, and out of those 5, only 1 may pass through all the regulatory hurdles needed to reach pharmacy shelves.

So far this year, 33 novel drugs have been approved by the FDA. Novel drugs are new molecular entities (NMEs) having chemical structures that have never been approved before.

The month of September saw the FDA approving the first biosimilar for the treatment of cancer. Amgen Inc.'s (AMGN) Mvasi, a biosimilar to the cancer drug Avastin received FDA approval for certain colorectal, lung, brain, kidney and cervical cancers on September 14, 2017.

FDA decisions on drugs can send some biotech stocks soaring or crashing.

Here's the list of biotech stocks that await a ruling from the FDA or FDA panel in October.