With investors focused on the performance of large cap biotech companies and their third quarter earnings the early returns have, by and large, been positive. As a result, as we close the curtain on what has been an extremely turbulent capital market environment in October, biotech has emerged relatively unscathed and is poised to finish the year in good shape.

For the month, the BioWorld Biotech Blue Chip index, a price-weighted index that includes 20 of the top biotech companies by market cap, closed 4 percent higher compared to a 1.6 percent increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index and a modest 0.9 percent uptick in the Dow Jones Industrial average over the same period. Year to date the BioWorld Biotech Blue Chip index has grown a significant 25 percent, well outpacing the Dow (up 4 percent) and the Nasdaq (up 9 percent). (See BioWorld Blue Chip Index, below.)

Among the blue chip biotech company third quarter financials, Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen Inc. has appeared to impress investors the most so far with its results. The firm's move into the biosimilar space certainly garnered attention during the company's business review meeting, which followed the release of strong third quarter financial results that showed the company beating estimates and included higher guidance for the full year's earnings. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 29, 2014.)

The company's third quarter revenues jumped 6 percent to $5 billion and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) rose 19 percent, reaching $2.30. The GAAP EPS were $1.61 for the period, and Amgen's guidance for the year was hiked.

At the close of markets on Thursday, the shares of Amgen were up 15 percent for the month and are now up 41 percent year to date.

The leading biotech company by market cap, Gilead Sciences Inc., reported a third quarter profit of 2.73 billion, or 1.84 per share, more than tripling its profit in the third quarter of 2013, during which it earned $788.6 million, or 47 cents per diluted share. Total product sales more than doubled to $5.97 billion from $2.71 billion a year earlier, led by the company's blockbuster hepatitis C therapy, Sovaldi (sofosbuvir). The company's shares grew just over 7 percent last month, bringing its year-to-date growth to a whopping 50 percent.

Investors have also been impressed by the future prospects of Alkermes plc, with its share value up a healthy 19.7 percent in October. The company's value rose 4.2 percent, or $1.99, to $49.61 last Wednesday, as CEO Richard Pops suggested the company was "on the threshold of multiple data readouts for one of the most exciting and robust pipelines of new CNS medicines in the industry." (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 30, 2014.)

BY THE NUMBERS

According to BioWorld Snapshots, there are currently 63 companies that have market caps greater than $1 billion, which represents a 7 percent growth in their number over the September total.

In terms of market cap valuation, during October, the 297 publicly listed biotech companies being tracked by BioWorld Snapshots collectively grew their market cap total by 6 percent to $800 billion. Interestingly, the billion-dollar market cap companies account for 92 percent of the total value of the sector.

The plethora of biotech company initial public offerings (IPO) this year, saw the 2000 record of 66 U.S. IPOs being equaled last week.

Expect the record to fall this month with several biotech companies announcing pricings of their offerings.

In terms of share price performance, the 2014 biotech IPO graduates had an average year-to-date growth of approximately 5 percent at the end of October.

Editor's note: This article previously appeared in BioWorld Insight, the weekly news service that provides behind-the-scenes analysis and commentary on the biopharmaceutical marketplace. Subscribe by calling (770) 810-3144 or (800) 477-6307 if calling from the U.S. or Canada or email bioworld at salessupport@thomsonreuters.com.