Here's What's Important In The Protalix Biotherapeutics Inc (NYSEMKT:PLX) Conference Call

Make a list of top performing biotech stocks of 2017 year to date, and Protalix Biotherapeutics Inc (NYSEMKT:PLX) is at or near the top. The company currently trades for around $1.20 a pop, having kicked off 2017 at circa $0.40 – a nearly 170% throughout the first quarter. Regular readers will know that, here at Insider Financial, we've been with the company throughout this entire run. We first highlighted it as being one to watch on January 9 in this piece – Protalix Is Undervalued At Current Prices. We did the same at the end of January here, and again in early February here.Each time, our conclusion has been the same – that the company is fresh off the back of an upside run, but that the run is only a small part of a potentially far longer term upside revaluation.And here we are again.Protalix ran up just shy of 15% on Friday, and is up a few more percentage points pre-market on Monday. The run comes ahead of a conference call set to take place on March 16, during which management put forward full year 2016 financials, alongside an operational and corporate update. There's plenty of speculation as to what the business update might involve, and it's this speculation that is driving the pre-event loading we're seeing in the stock right now.Whatever the call reveals, and even if there's nothing game changing that hits press, we're expecting it to drive some real upside momentum for one reason that stands out above the others – time frames.This is a company with a pipeline that has the potential to unseat some very large players (and some very strong assets) in the biotech space – and we'll look at these drugs specifically in a moment – but as yet, there's not too much clarity into the pace with which these drugs are moving through the development pipeline.We expect management to serve up some clarity as to when some major developments are going to be hitting press, and just as we've seen, markets are more than happy to load up ahead of any potential catalysts.So what are we looking at specifically?For those new to the company, Protalix's pipeline is rooted in a technology that it has developed with which it can create drugs using plant cells (carrot cells to be precise) instead of mammalian cells. It's far cheaper to produce drugs this way, and Protalix is currently trying to develop a range of plant based alternatives to currently available assets. It's a sort of generic drug type approach, but the tech alters the manufacture process, so it can skirt the standard patent issues of bringing copies to market.The lead asset is Fabry disease target that is trying to replace a drug called Fabrazyme (developed by Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY)), and it's called PRX-102. There are a couple of phase IIIs underway right now, and we want to see when data from these two studies is expected to hit press. There's also a phase III set to kick off in July in the same indication. From the trial resources, data from one of the ongoing, and the July start study, should hit mid 2018. The second of the two ongoings isn’t going to hit until 2019, but there's a chance of some interim, and again we'd like to see management shore up any potential time frame within which this interim might drop.The second focus asset is a cystic fibrosis drug that we’ve looked at a few times in the past. It's called AirDNase, and it's going after a market currently dominated by a drug called DNase. We got an interim release mid quarter, and we should see the full readout before the end of March. There's a good chance that this full readout will come part and parcel with the business update and – by proxy – will be addressed on the conference call. Again, therefore, it's a key point to focus on.So that's what we're looking for. Keep in mind it's a full year CC, so we're not going to get too much solid info relating to first quarter financials. As we've said though, it's the operational (and specifically, the pipeline) side of things that is important here.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on PLX, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in PLX and have not been compensated for this article.