Biopharmaceutical company Vivus is up 22% this morning on reports that a new pilot project clinical study has produced results showing that use of the company’s Qsymia drug with gastric sleeve surgery led to improved weight loss results over patients who had the surgery without the medication.
The study, which was conducted at the Wake Forest School of , was published in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.
“Patients with a BMI of 50 or greater generally benefit from bariatric surgery but have higher surgical risk and increased perioperative morbidity compared with patients with lower BMI,” noted Wake Forest professor Jamy Ard in a statement. “In an effort to reduce these risks, we undertook a pilot study to assess the feasibility and impact of using the drug before and after LSG surgery. Study results show that patients taking it lost significantly more weight before surgery and had improved outcomes with respect to weight loss and BMI than those not on AOM. This may allow more patients to avoid a secondary surgical procedure and its attendant risks. These results should be further evaluated in larger studies.”
This morning, VVUS spiked up to $4.15 from a prior close of $3.40 after the equity saw a dip down to $3.21 Friday.
Today’s premarket jump breaks VVUS out of a stasis over the last five day market and one month market, and back toward higher values that the stocks saw prior to April of this year.
As of March, Vivus was trading up toward 6 dollars per share and saw much higher values before that.
In addition to weight loss projects, Vivus is also involved in developing tools to deal with sleep disorders and erectile dysfunction; an ED drug has completed phase 3 clinical trials.
Today’s jump may also be built on positive activity begun after the inverse activity Friday.
A report from yesterday shows a marked decrease in short interest.
The stock of Vivus Inc (NASDAQ: VVUS) registered a decrease of 3.98% in short interest,” wrote Latoya Gonzalez. “VVUS’s total short interest was 540,200 shares in August as published by FINRA. It’s down 3.98% from 562,600 shares, reported previously. With 44,100 shares average volume, it will take short sellers 12 days to cover their VVUS’s short positions. The short interest to Vivus Inc’s float is 5.66%.”
Keep checking out the candlesticks on Vivus to understand how this stock is undergoing a transformation based on breaking news and related to its drug products.
