Achieve Life Sciences Says Mid-Stage Data For Smoking Cessation Drug Accepted For Presentation At Conference

Shares of thinly traded, nano-cap biotech Achieve Life Sciences Inc ACHV traded sharply higher Friday morning before paring those gains.

Achieve, which develops Cytisinicline – a plant-based alkaloid with a high binding affinity to nicotinic acetylcholine receptor – for smoking cessation, said an abstract containing data from the Phase 2b trial dubbed ORCA-1 has been accepted for presentation at the SRNT-E Annual Conference to be held in Oslo, Sept. 12-14.

ORCA-1 is Achieve's first ORCA – Ongoing Research of Cytisinicline for Addiction – program that aims at evaluating the safety and efficacy of the pipeline candidate for smoking cessation, and potentially other addiction indications.

Top-line results from the ORCA-1 study which enrolled 254 smokers at eight centers across the U.S., announced in June showed a 74% to 80% median reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked over a 25-day treatment period compared to 62% for placebo.

The results however did not excite investors, as they pushed the shares down by about 25% June 11.

Achieve said the abstract "A Multicenter, Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Phase 2b Trial of Cytisinicline in Adult Smokers" and the oral presentation will include updated cytisinicline data from the recently completed ORCA-1 trial.

Achieve traded around $2.42 at time of publication.

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