Drug developers are happy when they are making good progress in areas with unmet medical needs. Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX) is such a drug developer. The company is currently working on a treatment targeted at patients with a complex condition known as Huntington’s disease. The condition is characterized by involuntary movement that is also known as chorea. In a Phase 3 study, Auspex’s lead drug candidate known as SD-809 was found to be effective against chorea, Reuters stated in an article.
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Better results
The drug was tried against a placebo, and it worked very well in the patients that were administered with it. Now the company intends to study how the drug performs compared to the current standard of care known as tetrabenazine. Compared against a placebo, SD-809 was found to slow down anxiety and depression rates in the patients.
Widespread concern
Huntington’s disease is a disorder that impacts the brain whereby certain brain cells die with time. There is currently no cure for the Huntington’s disease, and most efforts have been dedicated on handling its symptoms, such as the involuntary movement or chorea. It is reported that 90% of the people suffering from Huntington’s disease exhibit symptoms of chorea.
If all goes well, Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX) intends to put forward a request for the approval of SD-809 in mid-2015.
Expanded mandate
The company is also keen to expand the treatment mandate of SD-809 so that it can extract maximum revenue from it. Auspex said that it wants to study the compound for a condition known as Tourette syndrome, which is a neurological disorder. The company also intends to study SD-809 for a type of lung disease that is known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Breakthrough in those areas is expected to lead to higher revenue stream from the sale of the drug if approval is obtained.
Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX) reported $0 revenue in the most recent quarter, but it suffered a net loss of $0.73 per share. Analysts on the average expect a loss of $0.45 per share for the quarter. The company concluded the quarter with $89.69 million in cash and equivalents, which was an improvement from $14.64 in the prior quarter.
Technicals
Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ASPX) jumped about 100% in a single session which is, obviously, tough to explain by any method of analysis, be it Fundamental or Technical. It would be challenging to think how the value can change to this extent overnight but the charts show that the uptrend was never broken since last May, 2014. The price kept going up in a perfectly channel bound manner. The volume supports the breakout but follow up buying is still required to see the stock sustaining at the higher levels.
