Here's What's Moving Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ARWR)

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ARWR) had a strong close to this month. The company was trading in and around $1.50 a share during the middle of July and by end of play last week, it had risen to circa $1.90 apiece – that's a 26% run. It's a big move, but the uptick came against a backdrop of essentially no news and no fresh developments from the company. At this end of the biotech space, as many of our readers will already be aware, companies don’t always need news to get moving. With that said, there's generally something behind the action, be it insider activity or something else.In this case, we think someone is loading up ahead of Arrowhead's third quarter earnings report. The company just announced that it's going to hold a webcast and conference call for the release (the same as it did last time around, back in May) and there's a good chance that the call will serve up some much-needed clarity into operational direction. If it does, the run we've just seen at the end of July should continue heading into the back end of this quarter and beyond.So what, specifically, are we looking for from the call as potentially getting the stock moving?Well, for those not familiar with this company, Arrowhead has been around for a while but – as of an event towards the end of last year – is essentially a brand new company. The company was developing a number of programs based on what it calls its DPC EX1 delivery vehicle, specifically three assets ARC-520, ARC-521, and ARC-AAT. Basically, a few deaths in non-human primates got the regulatory authorities concerned and Arrowhead decided that it was going to take too much time (and cost too much money) to investigate and resolve the problem to justify ongoing resource allocation. So the whole program was dropped and management decided to pivot to focus on what it calls its subQ and extra-hepatic pipeline, which includes programs in HBV, AAT, Factor 12, HIF-2alpha, and other unannounced programs. There's also an ongoing collaboration with Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) rooted in a cardiovascular asset.What are we getting at here?The situation as things stand is that there's not much clarity as to where the current pipeline stands in terms of progression. We know that the company is using some pretty interesting science to go after what could potentially be blockbuster indications, but we don't really know how close it is to getting trials kicked off in any of these indications and there's not been any confirmation as to which asset will hit the clinic first (we haven’t even seen an IND submission yet).The upcoming call, then, isn’t really about the numbers (outside of the cash on hand figure); instead, it's all about how much insight management serves up as to how long it's going to take to get into the clinic and what disease Arrowhead is going to target as a primary program.So that's what we are looking for. We expect management to say that it intends to submit an IND this quarter, meaning (if it hits its own target) we could see the initiation of an early stage clinical program (likely a phase I or I/II safety study) before the end of the year. If this is the case, the company will have essentially completed the framework laying side of its pivot and will be back on the treadmill towards a number of potentially major development associated catalysts.The call is slated to take place on Thursday, August 3, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. EDT. We'll be dialing in to see what happens and we'll update readers when we know more.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on ARWR, sign up below!Image courtesy of Julian Carvajal via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in ARWR and have not been compensated for this article.