Can Arrowhead Pharma Keep Up the Pace?

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 12, 2:01AM EST · Published Mar 27, 12:10PM EDT

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Can Arrowhead Pharma Keep Up the Pace? — © Thinkstock

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ARWR) shares made a solid gain on Tuesday after the company gave an update on its midstage study. Specifically, the firm announced that it has dosed the first subjects in a Phase 1/2 clinical study of ARO-HBV, which is being developed as a potentially curative therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

With this trial underway, Arrowhead stands to continue its incredible breakout. Excluding Tuesday’s move, Arrowhead has outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up over 270% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2018 alone, the stock is up nearly 90%.

What stands out here is that ARO-HBV is the second clinical candidate developed using Arrowhead’s proprietary Targeted RNAi Molecule technology.

This study is evaluating the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic effects of single-ascending doses of ARO-HBV in healthy adult volunteers and evaluating the safety, tolerability and pharmacodynamic effects of multiple-ascending doses of ARO-HBV in patients with chronic HBV.

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Bruce Given, M.D., chief operating officer and head of R&D at Arrowhead, commented:

We are proud of how quickly ARO-HBV moved through preclinical studies and are excited to be starting first-in-human clinical studies. The AROHBV1001 Phase 1/2 clinical study has an innovative design that is intended to assess, in parallel, safety and tolerability in healthy volunteers and multiple-dose anti-viral activity in HBV patients. Our experience with two prior compounds, ARC-520 and ARC-521, provides us with confidence that ARO-HBV, which is designed to target all viral transcripts, including those produced by both cccDNA and HBV DNA integrated into host DNA, has the potential to be a backbone therapy in combinations aimed at achieving a functional cure of chronic HBV infection.

Shares of Arrowhead traded up 14% at $7.95 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $5.50 and a 52-week range of $1.42 to $8.09.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.