Shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARWR) traded up 40.33% on Wednesday after it revealed the data on the drug to treat liver disease. Arrowhead has shared the positive interim 24-week liver biopsy results in four volunteers of AROAAT2002. AROAAT2002 is the open-label phase 2 clinical study of ARO-AAT. ARO-AAT is the investigational drug that is developed for the treatment of rare-genetic liver diseases. The rare liver disease is analogous with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD).
The biotechnology company has revealed that the result of the study showed improvement in liver stiffness. The clinical trial has unveiled the positive effects of ARO-AAT as the company saw a reduction in intra-hepatic mutant AAT protein (Z-AAT), both Z-AAT monomer and Z-AAT polymer. Participants have undergone the treatment for 24 weeks and all have shown the 93% to 95% drop in intrahepatic Z-AAT. Moreover, three of four patients have shown a 97% reduction in Z-AAT.
Arrowhead earlier expected that the 6 months treatment with ARO-AAT will reduce both Z-AAT monomer and Z-AAT polymer but the 24 weeks treatment data has shown the results which are more than the expectations. The company is planning to discuss with the FDA and other regulatory agencies to speed up the clinical trial.
Shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARWR) soared 40.33% as it gained +13.63 at $47.43 during the trading session of Wednesday. In the past 52-weeks of trading, this company’s stock has fluctuated between the low range of $19.51 and a high range of $73.72. Arrowhead has traded up 143.10% from its 52-weeks low and traded down -35.66% from its 52-weeks high. This company’s market capitalization has remained high, hitting $5.14 billion at the time of writing.
The positive result from the 24-week treatment showed that the ARO-AAT will soon improve the liver injury. This encouraging result has also given hope to the Alpha-1 community in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.
Arrowhead is currently working on the therapy, RNAi, that other companies have successfully commercialize. It has also licensed its therapies to various leading companies. It is too early to say that it will get the EU or FDA approval but there are chances that the company will receive the approval as it has shown the positive results of phase 2 clinical study of ARO-AAT.
Arrowhead three most advanced drugs include ARO-AAT, a treatment for liver disease. The company has recently provided promising results from its phase 2, the second one is JNJ-3989 which is licensed to Janssen and it is the potential treatment for hepatitis B. It has earlier reported the data which also showed the encouraging result. The third one is the AMG 890. AMG 890 has the ability to decrease the production of apolipoprotein A which is genetically linked with increased risk of atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular diseases.
