Addex Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ADXN) stock is soaring higher on Thursday after announcing news concerning a clinical trial for its epilepsy drug.
According to a news release, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which is under Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), got Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This will allow it to start a Phase 2a trial of epilepsy drug JNJ-40411813 (ADX71149).
Addex Therapeutics and Janssen Pharmaceuticals are working together to develop the epilepsy drug. They expect to start the clinical trial in the second quarter of the year.
The companies note that this trial will have them testing “efficacy, safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of adjunctive JNJ-40411813 (ADX71149)” in “patients with focal onset seizures with suboptimal response to levetiracetam.” The primary endpoint is “the efficacy of JNJ-40411813 (ADX71149) in combination with levetiracetam using a time-to-event endpoint.”
Robert Lütjens, head of Discovery Biology at Addex Therapeutics, said this about the news boosting ADXN stock up today.
“There is a strong preclinical rationale for mGlu2 PAM in epilepsy, including a true synergistic effect with levetiracetam. A highly synergistic anti-epileptic effect was observed when the two drugs were administered together, and we look forward to seeing this effect in epilepsy patients.”
ADXN stock was seeing heavy trading on the news today. As of this writing, more than 2.5 million shares have changed hands. For comparison, the stock’s daily average trading volume is only about 25,000 shares.
ADXN stock was up 39% as of Thursday morning.
On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
