What happened?
Shares of Anavex Life Sciences (AVXL +5.11%) -- a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company -- rose by as much as 22.9% on Tuesday and closed the day's trading session up by 15.4%. Investors reacted with enthusiasm to Anavex releasing top-line results from a phase 2 clinical trial for one of its leading pipeline candidates, ANAVEX2-73.
So what
ANAVEX2-73 is being investigated as a potential treatment for several illnesses, including Rett syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects brain development in girls. On Tuesday morning, Anavex released data from a phase 2 study for ANAVEX2-73 in adult female patients with Rett syndrome. The experimental medicine proved safe during the study -- which was the primary endpoint of the trial -- with no serious adverse events reported.
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Further, the drug met all of its secondary efficacy endpoints, including a statistically significant improvement in the Clinical Global Impression Improvement Scale, which is a measure of the severity of the symptoms of certain conditions. Anavex also noted that it will conduct an extension study of ANAVEX2-73, which will enroll all of the 25 patients who participated in this study.
Now what
There is currently no treatment for Rett syndrome approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but there are several companies with potential medicines for this condition in their pipelines. Anavex is one of those companies, and given the positive results from a clinical trial it reported today, the healthcare company is one step closer to launching a treatment for Rett syndrome on the market. With that said, there is still a long way to go, and it's important for interested investors to continue monitoring the progress of Anavex's ANAVEX2-73 closely.
