La Jolla Meets ATHOS-3 Trial Endpoints, Dispels Market Controversy In The Process

Shares of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company LJPC were trading lower by more than 8 percent Monday morning after the company released Phase 3 results in the New England Journal of Medicine from a study called ATHOS-3, which evaluated the company's therapy LJPC-501 for the treatment of patients with catecholamine resistant hypotension (CRH).

While investors were not satisfied with the results, Chardan's Gbola Amusa maintains a Buy rating on La Jolla's stock with an unchanged $34 price target. The analyst, who also holds an MD, argued in a research report that LJPC-501 showed a statistically significant benefit on CV SOFA and dispelled a market controversy which was brought to the spotlight in late February in which it was uncertain if ATHOS-3 topline data showed a statistical significance.

'Clear Positive'

The analyst wrote:

"Newly disclosed in the NEJM publication was a benefit shown for LJPC-501 on CV SOFA, the hierarchically first secondary endpoint in ATHOS-3, namely: 'At 48 hours, the mean improvement in the [CV SOFA] score (scores range from 0 to 4, with higher scores indicating more severe dysfunction) was greater in the [LJPC-501] group than in the placebo group (-1.75 vs. -1.28, P=0.01).'"

Given the results, Amusa believes the results "show synergy in using these vasoactive substances together, thereby permitting lower doses of each to limit established toxicities for catecholamines and vasopressin."

With that said, the analyst believes the ATHOS-3 publication is a "clear positive" and supports his bullish thesis on the stock, which remains a top pick for 2017.

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