MoonLake Immunotherapeutics beat Wall Street's expectations in an update for its skin-disease treatment. MLTX stock surged Monday within striking distance of a breakout.
The company tested a drug called sonelokimab in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa, a skin condition that causes painful lumps due to inflammation and infection of the sweat glands. After 24 weeks, 57% of patients who received sonelokimab saw at least a 75% reduction in symptoms. That's a 14% improvement from MoonLake's 12-week update.
The results "significantly" exceeded expectations for a 5% improvement from 12-week results, Leerink Partners analyst Thomas Smith said in a report.
"We are encouraged to see the deepening of responses with extended sonelokimab treatment and further confirmation of 120 milligrams as the optimal dose in hidradenitis suppurativa," he said. "We believe the 24-week data set continues to suggest superior (effectiveness) and a potential best-in-class profile for sonelokimab in hidradenitis suppurativa."
On the stock market today, MLTX stock jumped 10.7% to close at 60.53. Shares are closing in on a buy point at 63.40 out of a consolidation, according to MarketSmith.com. MLTX stock also has a best-possible Relative Strength Rating of 99, according to IBD Digital. The RS Rating is a measure of a stock's 12-month performance.
MLTX Stock: Some Patients Hit Remission
Sonelokimab also showed promise in several other measures. More than a third of patients, 38%, achieved at least a 90% improvement in symptoms after 24 weeks of treatment. That's a 16% increase from the 12-week update, Leerink's Smith said.
Further, one in four patients reached remission, meaning their abscesses, nodules and draining tunnels — tunnels under the skin that connect the lumps — disappeared completely. Importantly, there were no new or unexpected side effects.
Smith kept his outperform rating on MLTX stock.
Needham analyst Serge Belanger says sonelokimab could be more effective in treating hidradenitis suppurativa than AbbVie's Humira, Novartis' Cosentyx, and bimekizumab from UCB. The latter is approved in Europe under the brand name Bimzelx for psoriasis.
But he says investors are more focused on an upcoming readout from MoonLake's study of the same drug in patients with psoriatic arthritis. He expects those results in early November. Belanger kept his buy rating and 76 price target on MLTX stock.
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