Why ImmunityBio Stock Is Up More Than 11% Today

Shares of biopharma outfit ImmunityBio (NASDAQ: IBRX) are rising firmly again today, following through on last week's effort to rekindle the erratic rally that's been underway since early January. As of 3:15 p.m. ET Monday, in fact, shares are up 11.2%, mostly in response to late last week's announcement that Macau's regulatory body has approved the company's oncology drug Anktiva® for certain forms of bladder cancer. It is believed that this approval will open the door to approvals in other countries in and around the region, including China.

More good news for ImmunityBio's Anktiva

IBRX shares were already enjoying a tailwind, boosted by last week's news that the United States' National Comprehensive Cancer Network (or NCCN®) recently updated its 2026 clinical treatment guidelines to include the combination of ImmunityBio's Anktiva and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) as an appropriate treatment for patients with certain forms of bladder cancer (NMIBC) that aren't responsive to BCG treatments alone.

Now Macau's regulators see the same potential for Anktiva and BCG as a therapy for this sliver of bladder cancer patients, recently approving this combination of drugs for the exact same patient scenario.

Anktiva -- ImmunityBio's only approved and marketed drug -- is an immunotherapy, meaning it activates a cancer patient's own immune system in a way that fights cancer that it wasn't before treatment.

Image source: Getty Images.

While the Macau market itself isn't likely to be a particularly big one for ImmunityBio's drug, being a special administrative region of China, this win could set the tone for more approvals all along the Asia-Pacific Rim. The company's announcement even went as far as to highlight the fact that this is the "first Anktiva authorization in Asia, supporting ongoing global expansion across 34 countries and territories."

It's still a young biopharma name

And perhaps that's precisely how it will play out, kicking off a series of approvals that expands the company's reach into what Spherical Insights believes will be a cancer immunotherapy market worth nearly $460 billion by 2035, well up from 2024's estimate of just under $130 billion. ImmunityBio also currently has 12 other clinical trials underway, most of which are testing Anktiva for other purposes. It's all promising to be sure.

Just bear in mind that many other major pharmaceutical companies are consistently developing new oncology drugs, making it difficult for smaller and less-funded ones like this one to continue doing the work that drives gains like the 275% advance IBRX has produced just since the end of last year, when Anktiva started a string of regulatory and efficacy successes. It's still a relatively high-risk prospect if for no other reason than the sheer volatility that young biopharma names tend to dole out. It's probably not a great fit for investors who need certainty and stability.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.