What happened
Shares of Anavex Life Sciences (AVXL -6.63%), a clinical-stage biotech that specializes in therapies to treat neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases, fell by 23.5% on Monday. The stock closed on Friday at $11.89. After opening higher at $12.46 Monday, it rose to $12.49 before sliding for most of the rest of the day, falling to $8.86 late in the afternoon and closing the session at $9.10. The stock is down more than 47% this year and has a 52-week high of $21.30 and a 52-week low of $7.13.
So what
The company released its fiscal fourth-quarter numbers on Monday. Anavex isn't profitable, but its losses were more than anticipated. For the period, which ended Sept. 30, it reported a net loss of $14.3 million ($0.18 per share) compared to a net loss of $11.7 million ($0.15 per share) in the same quarter a year ago.
For the fiscal year, Anavex lost $48 million ($0.62 per share) compared to its loss of $37.9 million ($0.54 per share) in fiscal 2021. Despite those sluggish numbers, some investors see potential in the company's pipeline of central nervous system candidate therapies.
Now what
While the numbers were disappointing, the more important indicator for Anavex is coming on Dec. 1, when it is scheduled to present data on Anavex 2-73, its lead Alzheimer's therapy, at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease Congress in San Francisco. Anavex 2-73 is in a phase 2b/3 study. The road to potential therapies for Alzheimer's has been littered with disappointments, so it is possible some information about the trial has leaked early. The biotech company's drug is also being looked at as a possible treatment for Rett Syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that almost exclusively affects girls, and Parkinson's disease.
