Dallas, Texas 04/09/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Stock of Australia based drug maker Prana Biotechnology Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:PRAN) have posted modest recovery during trading yesterday, after receiving a shellacking last week, when it share price was down by close to 77 percent. The sell off occurred after the drug maker reported that data from its ongoing clinical trial of drug candidate PBT2 designed to treat Alzheimer’s disease did not meet the preset end point goals of the clinical trial.
The data and the results were part of a 12 month long, phase two clinical trials called “IMAGINE” to test the effectiveness of its PBT2 drug candidate in reducing “levels of beta-amyloid plaques” in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The data collected also reflected no significant improvement in the metabolic activity in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients who had been enrolled in these tests.
Putting up a brave face at this setback, Prana Biotechnology Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:PRAN) Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Kempler has been quoted to have said that, “Whilst not meeting all of our hopes, this result does not deter us from the future development of PBT2. We are consulting with experts in the field to further assess results and to consider how best to progress PBT2 in Alzheimer’s disease. IMAGINE Extension trial is continuing, and data from this trial is likely to inform the next steps for an Alzheimer’s disease program.”
Prana Biotechnology Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:PRAN) also reported that it was going to continue its efforts at leveraging PBT2 test findings for treating Alzheimer’s to find a cure for Huntington disease. It has indicated that it will review existing data and initiate clinical development in order to support a new drug application for using PBT2 as a drug for treating Huntington disease. Analyst agencies like H.C. Wainwright downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral post this news release.