Trevena Inc. (NASDAQ: TRVN) saw its shares continue to climb during Tuesday’s session on news of a positive Phase 2 trial. Despite this colossal jump, investors should be asking themselves if this move is sustainable.
Trevena is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and intends to commercialize therapeutics that use a novel approach to target G protein coupled receptors.
After the markets closed on Monday, Trevena announced positive data from its randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled Phase 2b trial of TRV130 in moderate to severe acute postoperative pain after abdominoplasty surgery. The study achieved its primary endpoint of statistically greater pain reduction than placebo over 24 hours. In addition, TRV130 was superior to morphine in pre-specified secondary measures, exhibiting significantly reduced nausea, vomiting and hypoventilation events.
Neil Singla, M.D., chief scientific officer of Lotus Clinical Research and lead investigator of the study, said:
The data from this trial showed that TRV130, when given on-demand, matched morphine efficacy for pain relief with a markedly improved safety and tolerability profile. The challenges of safely and adequately titrating morphine are well recognized, and these data suggest that, if approved, TRV130 may provide a better option than currently available opioid analgesics.
ALSO READ: 5 Big FDA Decisions Expected in September
Maxine Gowen, Ph.D., CEO of Trevena, also commented on the results:
The positive data from this study continue the impressive accumulation of evidence suggesting meaningful differentiation of TRV130 from morphine. The goal of new analgesic drug discovery has long been the provision of more powerful pain relief with reduced opioid-related adverse effects. We believe the Trevena biased ligand platform has delivered this profile in TRV130 and we look forward to starting Phase 3 development in early 2016.
A few analysts took this opportunity to weigh in on Trevena:
- Barclays upgraded the stock to an Overweight rating from Equal Weight.
- Needham reiterated a Buy rating.
- Wedbush reiterated an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $20 from $15, implying upside of over 100% from current prices.
Shares of Trevena were up 62% to $9.72 on Tuesday afternoon. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $13.94 and a 52-week trading range of $3.80 to $10.64. During Tuesday’s session, shares hit a high since the company had its IPO in January of 2014.
At a glance, seeing a move like this, most investors would think markets were up on the day instead of the sell-off that we have seen. Imagine if the markets were positive on Tuesday, how much Trevena could have moved.
With prices at an all-time high and analysts cheering on the stock, we might suspect that this move is sustainable in the near future, or at least until the next clinical trial update.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks