Roivant Sciences said Thursday more than a third of ulcerative colitis patients entered remission while receiving its experimental treatment. ROIV stock hit a buy point on the news.
The biotech company is testing a monthly shot that blocks an inflammatory ligand called TL1A. After about a year, 36% of patients entered remission and half showed improvement in symptoms visible by an endoscopy. An endoscopy also showed 21% had completely resolved symptoms.
Across the board, the results were an improvement from Roivant's last update after 14 weeks of treatment. Further, patients with a biomarker tied to ulcerative colitis had even stronger responses. Roivant says about 60% of patients in its study had that biomarker.
"Our expectations for this chronic data were categorically exceeded with significant improvements seen in patients receiving the expected Phase 3 dose across all key (effectiveness) metrics at week 56 vs. at week 14," Roivant Chief Executive Matt Gline said in a written statement.
On the stock market today, ROIV stock hit a buy point of 10 out of a consolidation pattern, according to MarketSmith.com. It climbed as high as 10.83 before pulling back. ROIV stock closed up 4.6% at 9.97.
Roivant stock initially broke out on June 9, but soon fell as much as 7% below its entry. That could have triggered a sell rule for some investors.
ROIV Stock: A New Approach To Inflammation
Roivant isn't the only company testing an TL1A-blocking approach to inflammatory diseases. But the company says it's the first to have long-duration test data for a drug in this class.
Patients received an introductory dose for 14 weeks. Then, patients received either the same dose or a lower dose each month for the remainder of the 56-week study.
For patients with a biomarker tied to ulcerative colitis, 43% entered remission, 64% showed symptom improvement under endoscopy and 36% had no symptoms under endoscopy when the study wrapped. Those measures all improved from the 14-week update.
Promisingly for ROIV stock, the experimental shot proved safe and well tolerated.
Now, Roivant is planning to run a final-phase study of its treatment. This drug has the "potential to transform the treatment paradigm for (inflammatory bowel disease)," Gline said. Ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease. It's marked by low remission rates and poor drug persistence.
Though Roivant stock had fallen after breaking out earlier this month, shares remained above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages. ROIV stock also has a strong IBD Digital Relative Strength Rating of 97. This means shares rank in the top 3% of all stocks when it comes to 12-month performance.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
