Zynerba's Clinical-Trial Miss Devastates Stock Price

Shares of Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc ZYNE, plunged 56 percent in pre-market trading after the company announced that its transdermal synthetic cannabinoid treatment for epilepsy, ZYN002, didn’t demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in median seizure frequency.

Rating Under Review

“While there was a dose proportional increase in the availability of the drug in the plasma, this increase did not relate to a clinically meaningful benefit,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Elemer Piros said in a note about the results from the phase 2 readout in adult epilepsy.

“Treatment with the a low and high dose of ZYN002 achieved a 18.4% and 14.0% median reduction in focal seizures from baseline, respectively, compared to placebo's 8.7%. These differences were not statistically significant. Based on these data, we are uncertain whether there remains a suitable path forward for development in adult focal seizures.”

He said the firm’s Overweight and a price target of $28 was under review pending an 8:30 am EDT conference call with the company. The pre-market price was $6.59, down a staggering 56 percent at publication.

“Following STAR 1 data, we are reevaluating our model and remind investors that YE cash balance for Zynerba is approximately $56 million,” Piros said. “Based on these data, our estimates and investment thesis are under review.”

Zynerba said last week it lost 64 cents per share in the second quarter on zero revenue, which was 6 cents worse than analysts were expecting. Net loss for the quarter also rose from $6.23 million in the same quarter a year ago to $8.32 million.

Related Link: The Numbers on Zynerba: 25 Percent Odds Of Success