Viridian Therapeutics stock surged Tuesday after unveiling promising results for its Amgen-rivaling eye disease treatment.
The biotech company tested five infusions of its drug, dubbed veligrotug, in patients with thyroid eye disease. In this condition, the muscles and fatty tissue behind the eye become inflamed. After 15 weeks, 70% of patients who received veligrotug showed improvement in proptosis, or eye bulge, vs. 5% of placebo recipients.
That compares favorably to Amgen's Tepezza. Amgen bought Tepezza maker Horizon Pharma for $27.8 billion last year. After 24 weeks of treatment with Tepezza, 51% to 73% of patients showed improvement in proptosis, Wedbush analyst Laura Chico said in a report.
Analysts say the results de-risk Viridian Therapeutics' efforts with veligrotug and a next-generation drug, VRDN-003. The latter is an under-the-skin shot.
"We believe this morning's data comes as a bull-case scenario for the top line — opening the door to subsequent program successes ahead," RBC Capital Markets analyst Gregory Renza said in a note.
O today's stock market, Viridian Therapeutics stock launched 32.1% to close at 18.75. Amgen stock rose 0.9%, closing at 328.93.
Hearing Impairment Issues 'Overblown'
In addition to strong proptosis results, Viridian Therapeutics also noted double vision was resolved for 54% of the veligrotug group. That compared with just 12% of placebo recipients.
Notably, drugs in this class can cause hearing impairment. But just 5.5% more veligrotug recipients experienced hearing problems than the placebo group. That toped Tepezza, which has a 10% placebo-adjusted hearing impairment rate.
"Taken together, we believe these data largely ease a notable driver of investor focus, as the safety story for the program evolves," RBC's Renza said.
He kept his outperform rating and 35 price target on Viridian Therapeutics stock.
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