What happened
Atossa Therapeutics (ATOS 1.33%) got off to a roaring start this week, with its stock closing just over 30% higher on Monday to reach a new one-year peak. The company announced that clinical results for a promising pipeline drug are coming in a matter of days.
So what
Atossa, a clinical-stage biotech that has been popular with investors of late, said it would publish and discuss final data from the phase 2 study of Endoxifen. This is the company's leading pipeline treatment, a drug that is given to breast cancer patients in advance of surgery. The discussion will take place in a webinar this Wednesday at 8 a.m. PDT; it is to be led by company CEO Steven Quay and other top managers.
So far, the results of Endoxifen trials disclosed by the company have been very encouraging. In February, Atossa said that the "overwhelmingly positive" results in phase 2 testing in Australia led it to conclude that trial and advance development in the U.S.
Also, a compassionate-use Endoxifen study on one patient spanning over two years showed no recurrence of breast cancer. The drug was well tolerated by the recipient, the company added.
Now what
I should stress that, as ever with biotech stocks, early clinical successes do not guarantee positive results further down the chain. Yet breast cancer is a common disease and effective treatments are sorely needed, so Atossa stock could still have a long runway if Wednesday's news is encouraging.