Biotech stock Pliant Therapeutics doubled Monday after the company unveiled positive midstage test results for a lung-disease treatment.
Pliant tested its treatment over 12 weeks in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In this condition, the lungs become scarred, making it difficult to breathe. The drug led to improvement in symptoms — measured by the ability to breathe forcefully and lung imaging.
In response, the biotech stock rocketed 159% to 23 on today's stock market.
Biotech Stock Hits 10-Month High
Researchers tested three doses of the treatment, dubbed PLN-74809, in 67 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. All but two patients completed the study. Another 23 patients received standard treatments. Ultimately, the highest dose led to the strongest improvements.
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RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams noted the study was small. Further, there was limited information on what treatments, if any, patients tried before PLN-74809. It's also important to note that patients who received standard drugs also improved.
But "there was nothing concerning emerging from the call that would change our initial view that (the drug's effectiveness) is real and should be replicable in future studies in this large-market indication, and that there were no worrisome safety signals to date," he said in a report.
Abrahams kept his outperform rating on the biotech stock.
Long-Term Safety Still Questioned
Abrahams noted long-term safety remains a question for PLN-74809. But the fact that the drug is already proving tolerable could signify Pliant found a good target for treating the disease, he said. At this point, rival Biogen was already having safety problems with its drug.
The news helped biotech stock Pliant retake its key moving averages, according to MarketSmith.com. Pliant shares also notched a 10-month high.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
