Why Spark Therapeutics Stock Is Getting Slammed Today

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Spark Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ONCE) stock was falling hard on Tuesday following the release of its earnings report for the second quarter of 2018.

Why Spark Therapeutics Stock Is Getting Slammed TodaySpark Therapeutics’s earnings report includes an update concerning the company’s Phase 2 trial of SPK-8011. SPK-8011 is a gene therapy the company is developing to reduce bleeding caused by hemophilia A.

The results from this study found that it reduced annualized bleeding rates and annualized infusion rates in all of the 12 patients by 97%. While this is good news, there was a bit of a setback for Spark Therapeutics during the study.

First off, Spark Therapeutics notes that of the 12 patients in the study, seven saw “alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation above patient baseline, declining FVIII levels and/or positive IFN-g enzyme-linked immunospots.” Five of these seven patients were treated with oral steroids to overcome these issues.

The news wasn’t as good for the other two patients. Their FVIII levels dropped below 5% during the trial due to an immune response. One of these patients elected to be treated at a hospital and was given two intravenous methylprednisolone infusions. The company notes that this counts as a serious adverse event.

Spark Therapeutics says that it will be moving forward with the third Phase of the study. It plans to start this portion of the clinical trial in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Mixed results from the study marred what was already a mixed earnings report for the quarter. This includes earnings per share of $2.07 and revenue of $25.19 million.Wall Street was looking for losses per share of 1 cent and revenue of $29 million for the period.

ONCE stock was down 29% as of Tuesday morning.

As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/08/what-has-spark-therapeutics-down-today/.

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