What happened
Shares of Adagio Therapeutics (IVVD -6.17%), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, are shooting higher on Wednesday morning in response to new clinical trial data. Investors amped up about the results pushed the stock 42% higher as of 10:26 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
So what
Adagio Therapeutics doesn't have any products to sell at the moment, but that could change soon. Adintrevimab, the experimental antibody formerly known as ADG20, met and exceeded the main goals of two clinical trials.
In the Evade study, participants who received adintrevimab before or after exposure to COVID-19 were significantly less likely to get sick than those randomized to receive a placebo. The Stamp study enrolled patients who already had mild to moderate COVID-19. Patients in Stamp who received adintrevimab were 77% less likely to die or require hospitalization than those given a placebo.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Adagio's data is great but it's unclear how well adintrevimab will perform in the shadow of Pfizer's Paxlovid. Adagio's candidate is an injectable antibody while Paxlovid is a tablet that's easier to manufacture and a lot easier to administer.
During a pivotal study, treatment with Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization by 89% and there weren't any deaths among patients who received the drug. Adagio's antibody will probably earn an Emergency Use Authorization, but a hyper-successful launch from this pre-commercial company is far from certain.
