NewAmsterdam Pharma said Tuesday its cholesterol drug lowered the risk of major cardiovascular events — like a heart attack or stroke — and the biotech stock catapulted.
Over the course of a year, patients who received NewAmsterdam's obicetrapib had a 21% lower risk of having a major cardiovascular event, the company said in a news release.
The result "meaningfully exceeds our expectations," William Blair analyst Matt Phipps said in a note. "This level of MACE (major adverse cardiovascular event) benefit increases out confidence in the ability of obicetrapib to demonstrate a greater than 20% relative risk reduction on the primary endpoint of MACE, in the ongoing Phase III cardiovascular outcomes study."
NewAmsterdam stock skyrocketed 41.4% to close at 26.19. Shares opened at their highest point since November 2022. The biotech stock broke out of a buy point at 25.32 out of a cup-with-handle base, according to MarketSurge.
Biotech Stock: Promising LDL Reduction
NewAmsterdam tested obicetrapib in patients who don't have controlled LDL cholesterol. These patients either don't respond to traditional drugs — like statins — or can't tolerate them.
After a year, obicetrapib lowered "bad" LDL cholesterol by an average of 33% and a median of 36%, the company said. These results were in line with expectations, William Blair's Phipps said.
The company is taking a different tact in cholesterol treatment. It's not a statin and it doesn't target the PCSK9 protein like Amgen's Repatha and Praluent from partners Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Sanofi.
Instead, obicetrapib works by blocking a protein called CETP. There have been some big failures in this space, which is why NewAmsterdam's results have, at times, invigorated the biotech stock.
The level of benefit seen at one year suggests "obicetrapib could be driving MACE benefit through mechanisms beyond just LDL-C reductions," Phipps said.
He has an outperform rating on the biotech stock.
Follow Allison Gatlin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @IBD_AGatlin.
