Allon Therepeutics Inc. (TSX:NPC) is a step closer to commercializing its lead drug candidate, a treatment for certain forms of dementia, after presenting data showing the drug is meeting safety requirements during clinical trials.
Its share price rose 7% to $0.46 on Friday with share volumes triple its recent average daily trading volume.
Allon presented data about its trials of davunetide at the International Conference on Frontotemporal Dementias in Indianapolis on Friday.
The data shows davunetide met its primary endpoint of safety and tolerability in 12-week clinical trials involving 12 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy and other types of frontotemporal dementia.
Often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia is a group of rapidly progressive and fatal degenerative brain diseases. Allon is developing davunetide as the first approved treatment for progressive supranuclear palsy.
Feedback from patients and caregivers in the trial will help Allon and its clinical collaborators conduct the company’s next trials, which will test davunetide’s efficacy.
That trial will take place in the near future, Allon said.
Davunetide received orphan drug designation as a treatment for progressive supranuclear palsy in the United States and the European Union this year.
Orphan drugs are eligible for certain tax incentives and patent protections because they combat rare diseases that have smaller markets.
BIV reported last April that davunetide’s development has also been fast-tracked in the U.S. by that country’s drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (See “Allon Therapeutics’ lead drug to be fast tracked in U.S. ” – April 7; BIV Business Today).
Davunetide, which is derived from a naturally occurring brain protein, has shown an ability to treat numerous degenerative brain diseases by improving cognition through a mechanism believed to effect structures in the brain critical to communication between cells.
Allon’s share price range during the past week: $0.42 and $0.46; 52-week high: $0.77; 52-week low: $0.22.