One of the biggest stock movers on Monday’s markets, or rather, Monday’s market in after-hours trading, was a small biotech stock that surprised investors with a great piece of news. Xeris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XRES), a small $156 million biotech company, announced on late Monday that its diabetes drug candidate has shown strong results in its latest clinical trial, news that sent shares of the stock surging by over 25%.
Diabetes treatments are considered to be a hot market in the healthcare sector. Considering the vast number of people that have the disease, as well as the fact that it has a low mortality rate and being quite manageable, companies that develop drugs to treat – or even cure – diabetes could make a fortune. While there are many companies working in this field already, none are at the proverbial finish line with a fully developed and tested drug candidate yet.
Xeris Pharmaceuticals reported that a phase 2 trial for its type 1 diabetes drug, glucagon, has shown significant benefits in helping stabilize blood sugar levels in patients during as well as after intense aerobic exercise. This is a big deal because type 1 diabetes patients have to watch out for their blood sugar levels not just while living their day to day lives, but also while exercising.
“Our goal with this study is to show that a mini dose (150 µg) of Xeris’ liquid stable glucagon, administered immediately prior to aggressive aerobic exercise, can alleviate this burden and prevent exercise-induced hypoglycemia,” said Paul R. Edick, Xeris’ CEO and Chairman. “This data from the in-clinic portion of our ongoing Phase 2 study, we believe indicates that we can do just that. The second half of the study, where subjects will be exercising on their own at home, will inform us further as to the safety and effectiveness of using mini doses of glucagon to reduce the risk of experiencing hypoglycemia during exercise for this population.”
Should glucagon become a success, shares of Xeris can easily skyrocket. Diabetes drugs have plenty of potential for becoming a blockbuster, multi-billion-dollar per year treatment due to the sheer number of patients out there in the world. While only a fraction of all diabetes patients has the type 1 version of the condition, there’s still plenty of people around the world diagnosed with the condition every year. It is estimated that 40,000 patients are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year, with 17,900 of them being children and adolescents under the age of 20.
Xeris Pharmaceutical’s stock price jumped by 25% in after-hours trading alone at the time of writing this article and is likely to continue its gains well into Tuesday’s trading session. Although there are only four Wall Street analysts covering the stock right now, all of them have enthusiastic “buy” ratings on the company.
Xeris Pharmaceuticals Company Profile
Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc is a specialty pharmaceutical company leveraging its novel non-aqueous formulation technology platforms, XeriSol and XeriJect, to develop and commercialize ready-to-use injectable and infusible drug formulations. Its pipeline products are Diazepam, Pramlintide-Insulin, Self-Administered Glucagon, Continuous Glucagon, and others. – Warrior Trading News
