La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co. shares continued to surge Thursday afternoon trading after the company announced positive interim antibody results from its Phase II trial of Riquent, its drug candidate for systemic lupus erythematosus. The results showed a significant dose response when comparing all Riquent-treated patients to placebo-treated patients, the company said. "We are very excited by these results," said Deirdre Gillespie, president and chief executive, in a statement. "The higher the dose, the greater the reduction in antibodies to dsDNA, and the relative magnitude of these reductions is greater than we have seen in previous studies, which used lower doses of Riquent."
LJPC continues to surge thursday, trading up over 34% (over $1.07 per share) at $4.23.
Whats
Riquent is a new treatment for Lupus. Lupus, which affects about one million people in the U.S. and Europe, is a chronic, potentially life-threatening autoimmune disorder in which patients' diseased B cells produce antibodies to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). These antibodies are believed to cause lupus kidney disease that can lead to kidney failure, dialysis, kidney transplantation, and death.
It's mechanism of action is not fully understood, LJPC is using a technology that helps induce self tolerance from diseased B cells. What most likely is happening is Riquent is a peptide [small protein] that binds to the antibody producing cells that mimics another self protein. The antibody producing cell sees this protein as self and says "hey man, Im mounting an immune response to myself and that's not good. I should slow down". Thus less antibodies to self DNA and slows the progression of the disease.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment