More than two hours after close of market on Friday, Neurochem
Neurochem's Alzheimer's treatment, Alzhemed, is currently in phase 3 studies. Investors have been waiting for the results from the first of two studies since the trial's completion was announced in February. This most recent announcement is just the latest in a series of delays on making the Alzhemed data public.
Small development-stage drugmakers can sometimes be forgiven if they miss their timelines and goals, but Neurochem has been stalling on releasing these study results since the spring. As recently as two weeks ago Neurochem was guiding for these Alzhemed study results to be released "during the second quarter" but now the new release date is "sometime in 2007."
What's curious is that now that the study data is finally starting to materialize, Neurochem's "external" team of statisticians keeps delaying the announcement on the top-line results release. What's even more curious (and convenient) is that during this delay Neurochem has had time to engage in a dilutive financing and other transactions.
Something is almost always amiss when drugmakers get so selective in announcing their data and only give investors positive glimpses of trial results like Neurochem did two weeks ago. There are other issues like the high dropout rate and possibly messy statistical analysis that make it difficult to envision positive results coming from this study.
Hiding or delaying the announcement of material facts from investors rarely results in positive developments; we saw this with Encysive Pharmaceuticals
Encysive Pharmaceuticals is a Rule Breakers selection. You can check out all our recommendations as well as get access to our message boards and exclusive content with a 30-day free trial.
Fool contributor Brian Lawler does not own shares of any company mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
