Immunic (US:IMUX) shares fell 75% on Friday after the biotech company said an interim phase 1b trial review of its IMU-935 psoriasis treatment candidate produced unexpected results.
It said it’s continuing the blind trial to treat patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis.
The overall blind trial is continuing, but Immunic said a scheduled interim review showed the group averages for the test failed to diverge from the placebo in two arms after four weeks. It added that the trial demonstrated IMU-935 to be safe and well-tolerated, and no new safety signals were observed.
“The unexpected high placebo rates observed in this interim analysis are disappointing and confound the activity evaluation in the investigated active treatment arms. This requires further investigation throughout the coming weeks and months,” Andreas Muehler, M.D., Chief Medical Officer said in a news release.
The company said it conducted the trial in Australia, New Zealand and Bulgaria. It was a 28-day, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 41 patients, at doses of 150 mg once-daily and 150 mg twice-daily versus placebo (randomized 3:1). “The primary objective was the evaluation of the safety and tolerability of IMU-935 in moderate-to-severe psoriasis patients.”
Immunic, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of selective oral immunology therapies focused on treating chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
“Although we did not see the desired activity signal over placebo in this group-level interim analysis, we retain a high degree of conviction on IMU-935’s potential promise in psoriasis and beyond,” Chief Executive Officer Daniel Vitt said.
The company’s shares rose sharply earlier this month after the company said it planned to sell shares to the public in an upsized offering. It agreed to sell about 8.7 million shares at $4.35 each. That was almost a ten percent premium to its market price of $3.96.
The company also sold warrants for up to 5.1 million shares, priced at $4.34 each.
It said it would use the proceeds to continue drug development for its top candidates.
This article originally appeared on Fintel
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