Wave Life Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ: WVE) was a big loser in yesterday’s trading session. The stock opened with a gap down to close the day at a loss of 49.46%. This followed news that, the company’s clinical results for its treatment for Huntington disease were disappointing. The trial was testing the company’s treatment against a placebo.
From the trial, the company announced that, there was a 12% (statistically significant) drop in the mutant Huntington protein that causes the disease. However, there was no difference when it came to the total Huntington protein when measured against the placebo. Nonetheless, the treatment met its endpoints on safety, with the company stating that, it was well tolerated by patients that received doses of 16 mg in both single and multi-doses of the drug.
Commenting on this development, the company’s Chief Medical Officer, Michael Panzara, stated that, topline analysis of the treatment gave the company an opportunity to analyze data for its ongoing dose-finding study. He further stated that, available data showed a decrease in mutant HTT and that the safety profile from the patients did support trials with higher dosages of the treatment, WVE-120102. He added that the goal would be to maximize mutant HTT decrease, while at the same time avoid the possibility of negatively affecting healthy huntington proteins.
He also stated that the company intends to start the 32mg cohort and will share data on the same in H2 of 2020. The company announced that, it intends to continue working with its research partners, including CHDI Foundation as it continues to research on methods for assessing wtHTT protein preservation.
From its price action, the stock is trading lower and yesterday’s gap down saw it test a new low. It traded between a high of $10.50 and a low of $7.78 before closing the day at $7.99. Volumes in the day stood at 10.13 million.
About Wave Life Sciences Ltd
Wave Life Sciences is a clinical-stage biopharma that develops new stereopure oligonucleotides. It is based in Singapore.
