Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS) Is A Big Winner For Our Readers

Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS) has been a big 2017 winner for our readers. The company was trading at $3.50 a piece when we first highlighted it back at the start of May. When we returned to it at the end of that month, Pieris had risen to around $4.50 a share. At the end of last week, the company broke the $5 mark and closed out the session on Friday for $5.06 – a 45% premium to our alert price.With these gains in place, it's time to take another look at what's moving the company in an attempt to figure out what we're likely to see next. In other words, let's ask the question, can this one continue to run?For those that missed our previous coverage of Pieris it might be worth briefly jumping back to catch up here. For those that don’t want to click away, however, and by way of a brief introduction to the situation, the company is a biotechnology stock that's trying to get assets to market rooted in a proprietary antibody technology. Specifically, the technology in question is able to produce a type of synthetic antibody (what Pieris refers to as an antibody mimetic) that mimics an antibody in terms of complexity (and in turn, function) but is just a fraction of the size. The functions and processes associated with antibodies can be incredibly useful across a whole spectrum of various healthcare indications, but in their natural form, they are (relatively) large. This size limits their application in the human body.With its antibody mimetic technology, Pieris can essentially apply the MOA of an antibody in parts of the body within which an antibody might not normally fit.So that's the technology; what we like about this one outside of the MOA, however, is its operational strategy. Pieris creates a preclinical asset then looks for a partner (a big name partner) to carry the asset along the development pathway. This negates a large portion of the risk that's normally associated with an exposure to a company at this end of the biotech sector – namely, the risk of capital restraint and the dilution associated with capital necessity – and, for us, makes Pieris an alternative but attractive allocation.So what's driving the latest action?As we pointed out last time, the news that got this one moving was a partnership announcement detailing a collaboration with biotech giant AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN). The two companies are set to team up on an asthma asset called PRS-060, with Pieris picking up a $45 million upfront payment and eligible for a further $2.1 billion in potential milestone and royalty payment as the asset moves towards commercialization.And it's this deal we're watching as providing the major near-term catalysts and – by proxy – underpinning any near-term continuation of the upside action seen over the last couple of months.There's a quick $12.5 million on offer at the initiation of a phase I study, which should provide some near-term compounding of the recent action and help to push this stock towards double figures during the third quarter of this year.HSR wait-out just expired for the AZN deal, meaning a near term close is also on the cards ahead of a trial initiation. Once this close is in place, we don't expect AstraZeneca to hang around; we think the company will get moving quickly on making good of its $45 million upfront outlay.There's also some data set for release from an anemia study of an asset called PRS-080, which is under development as part of a similar collaboration to that of the AZN, PRS-060 deal, but with a Japanese drugmaker called ASKA Pharmaceutical Co fronting development costs. The data derives from a phase IIa in this indication and the numbers should hit press at some point during the coming 8-12 weeks.Dilution isn’t a concern near term, with the $45 million upfront alleviating any capital necessity and the ongoing milestone payments (starting with the $12.5 million phase I injection) removing the necessity to raise to fund day to day and the partnership strategy ensuring there's sufficient third party capital in place to fund clinical development.Bottom line: we may see a near-term correction as shorter term operators book profits. Longer term, however, we expect this one to continue to appreciate as its various programs mature.Catch up with the whole story on this one here. We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on PIRS, sign up below!Image courtesy of NIAID via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in PIRS and have not been compensated for this article.