Transition Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TTHI)
Transition Therapeutics Inc. (TTHI), a biopharmaceutical company yesterday announced that one of its subsidiaries, Transition Therapeutics Ireland Limited (TTIL) has finished their analysis of the data of the Phase II/III study of ELND005. The ELND005 study was with Alzheimer’s disease patients dealing with agitation and aggression.
Transition Therapeutics Inc. CEO Comments
“This study was originally designed as a Phase 2 study, and viewed from that perspective, it has provided TTIL with important data to select a patient population, effectively screen for these patients in a clinical setting and identify a dosing regimen with acceptable safety and tolerability. The next step will be to share these findings with regulators to discuss an ELND005 Phase 3 program in AD patients with severe agitation and aggression,” said Dr. Tony Cruz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Transition. “We believe that the overall data generated in this Phase 2/3 study support the clinical advancement of ELND005 into a Phase 3 clinical study and will aid us in the identification of a target AD patient population with severe agitation and aggression.” PR Newswire
TTHI Technical Analysis
TTHI gapped up in price yesterday to $2.25, up from the prior day’s close of $1.93 which is a 17% increase in price based on favorable news. Taking a look at the daily chart, we can see the last time the stock traded above this price level was on August 18th when the stock closed at $2.32. Taking a further look back on the chart we can see the stock had a huge drop off its 52 week high price of $9.30 on June 23rd. The next day, the stock fell all the way to lows of $2.11, or equivalent to a 77% drop in price in one day. As you can see, the stock can be extremely volatile. The drop was due to one of the company’s lead drug candidates failing to meet the primary endpoint in a phase II/III study. Since the big drop in price the stock has stayed in a trading range approximately in between $2.00 and $2.50. The stock does have a low float of 26.24 million shares and is trading on extremely high volume, over 32 times the normal daily trading volume. Both of these factors make the stock a good candidate for the gap and go strategy. The stock did reach pre market highs of $2.86 meaning that it gave back $0.61 at the open, or equivalent to 21%. For trading purposes, my entry point would have been $2.30 looking for a run to the pre market high levels of $2.86. My stop loss would have been $2.15 fearing anything below that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up.
Company Profile
Transition Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, researches and develops therapeutic agents for disease indications primarily in Canada. The company’s lead central nervous system drug candidate is ELND005, which has completed a Phase II/III clinical trial for the treatment of agitation/aggression associated with Alzheimer’s disease; and has completed Phase IIa clinical trial for the treatment of Down syndrome. Its lead metabolic drug candidate is TT401, which is in Phase II clinical study for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and accompanying obesity. The company is also developing TT701, a selective androgen receptor modulator for the treatment of androgen deficiencies. Transition Therapeutics Inc. has a licensing and collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly to develop and commercialize TT401; and to develop compounds in preclinical models to provide glycemic control and other beneficial effects, including weight loss. The company was formerly known as Transition Therapeutics and Diagnostics Inc. and changed its name to Transition Therapeutics Inc. in December 2000. Transition Therapeutics Inc. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Yahoo Finance