Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ:SANA – Get Free Report) and Scilex (NASDAQ:SCLX – Get Free Report) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.
Profitability
This table compares Sana Biotechnology and Scilex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Sana Biotechnology | N/A | -84.22% | -44.97% |
| Scilex | -159.10% | N/A | -93.65% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Sana Biotechnology and Scilex, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Sana Biotechnology | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2.83 |
| Scilex | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3.00 |
Insider & Institutional Ownership
88.2% of Sana Biotechnology shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.7% of Scilex shares are owned by institutional investors. 31.1% of Sana Biotechnology shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.7% of Scilex shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Sana Biotechnology and Scilex”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Sana Biotechnology | N/A | N/A | -$283.26 million | ($1.40) | -2.09 |
| Scilex | $55.15 million | 1.32 | -$114.33 million | ($0.83) | -0.36 |
Scilex has higher revenue and earnings than Sana Biotechnology. Sana Biotechnology is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Scilex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Risk and Volatility
Sana Biotechnology has a beta of 1.63, suggesting that its share price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Scilex has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Scilex beats Sana Biotechnology on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Sana Biotechnology
Sana Biotechnology, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on utilizing engineered cells as medicines. It develops ex vivo and in vivo cell engineering platforms for various therapeutic areas with unmet treatment needs, including oncology, diabetes, central nervous system disorders, B-cell-mediated autoimmune, and others. The company’s product candidates include SC291 that is used as allogeneic cell therapies for hematologic malignancies; ARDENT for a potential treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and chronic lymphoblastic leukemia; GLEAM, to treat multiple autoimmune disorders that involve production of autoimmune antibodies, including lupus nephritis, extrarenal lupus, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody -associated vasculitis, and others. It is developing SC262 to treat patients with relapsed and/or refractory B-cell malignancies; SC255 for multiple myeloma treatment; SC379, a therapy for patients with certain central nervous system disorders healthy allogeneic glial progenitor cells; SC451, a product candidate to treat diabetes, with an initial focus on type 1 diabetes mellitus; and UP421 that reduces long-term exogenous insulin dependence. The company has an option and license agreement with Beam Therapeutics Inc. for use of Beam’s proprietary CRISPR Cas12b nuclease editing technology to research, develop, and commercialize engineered cell therapy products; and a license agreement with Harvard College to access certain intellectual property for the development of hypoimmune-modified cells. The company was formerly known as FD Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Sana Biotechnology, Inc. in September 2018. Sana Biotechnology, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
About Scilex
Scilex Holding Company focuses on acquiring, developing, and commercializing non-opioid pain management products for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Its commercial products include ZTlido (lidocaine topical system) 1.8% (ZTlido), a prescription lidocaine topical product for the relief of neuropathic pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), which is a form of post-shingles nerve pain; ELYXYB, a ready-to-use oral solution for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults; and GLOPERBA, a liquid oral version of the anti-gout medicine colchicine indicated for the prophylaxis of painful gout flares in adults. The company is also developing three product candidates, including SP-102 (10 mg dexamethasone sodium phosphate viscous gel) (SEMDEXA), a novel viscous gel formulation of a used corticosteroid for epidural injections, which has completed a Phase 3 study to treat lumbosacral radicular pain or sciatica; SP-103 (lidocaine topical system) 5.4% (SP-103), a formulation of ZTlido for the treatment of chronic neck pain and low back pain (LBP) that has completed a Phase 2 trial; and SP-104 (4.5 mg low-dose naltrexone hydrochloride delayed-release capsules) (SP-104), a novel low-dose delayed-release naltrexone hydrochloride, which has completed Phase 1 trials for the treatment of fibromyalgia. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
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