martes, 19 de noviembre de 2019

You don’t see that every day

The Readout
Damian Garde

You don’t see that every day

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Yesterday, a company called Karuna Therapeutics said its in-development treatment for schizophrenia worked in a mid-stage trial. And then the company’s stock price quintupled.

It’s not uncommon for biotech companies to experience dramatic changes in valuation when a drug succeeds — or, more often, fails. But a chart as dramatic as the one above is almost unheard of. The closest thing in recent memory came Jan. 10, 2014, when Intercept Pharmaceuticals roughly quadrupled on positive data for its NASH treatment, setting off an industry-wide gold rush that is yet to wane.

As for Karuna, the drug significantly beat placebo on a measure of schizophrenia symptoms in a 182-patient trial. And, importantly, side effects like weight gain and drowsiness were similar to placebo, suggesting Karuna’s drug might be more tolerable than schizophrenia medicines on the market.

Read more.

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