Positive trial data tends to do wonders for pharmaceutical stocks, and Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) proved no exception. The stock was up fantastically in Wednesday afternoon trading thanks to a bright clinical trial data report.
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Geron posted IMerge Phase 3 clinical trials for imetelstat, a drug used to target myelodysplastic syndrome. Imetelstat itself is a “telomerase inhibitor,” a first-in-its-class treatment, and by all reports, it worked pretty well at targeting the disease. Chairman and CEO John Scarlett revealed that the results of the Phase 3 trials were “overwhelmingly positive.” Scarlett also noted that the drug offered “…compelling durability of transfusion independence” and that regulatory submissions would come later this year.
Better yet, the risk to patients seemed comparatively light. There were no new adverse events found with imetelstat. The study also found no new safety issues. That made the drug look like a solid candidate, especially when compared to a placebo. Geron surged better than 60% in premarket trading this morning. Though it gave back around half of those gains by the time afternoon trading hit, the stock was still up nearly a third higher than yesterday’s close.
The results prompted a lot of new investor support. One sector that’s been pretty solid in its support overall is the hedge fund sector. Hedge funds currently have a Positive opinion of the stock and added an extra 1.2 million shares to their holdings last quarter.
