Arena Pharma Stock Surges On Positive Hypertension-drug Study

(RTTNews) - Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARNA) announced positive Phase 2 results for ralinepag, an investigational, long-acting, orally administered prostacyclin receptor agonist under development for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension or PAH.

ARNA closed Monday's regular trading at $18.39, down $0.86 or 4.47 percent. However, the stock gained $7.60 or 41.33 percent.

In this 61-patient study, the primary efficacy analysis demonstrated a statistically significant absolute change from baseline in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) compared to placebo. Ralinepag also demonstrated numerical improvement in 6-minute walk distance (6MWD).

Ralinepag improved median PVR by 163.9 dyn.s.cm-5 from baseline compared to a 0.7 dyn.s.cm-5 worsening from baseline in the placebo arm (P=0.02). Patients treated with ralinepag had a 29.8% improvement in PVR compared to the placebo arm (P=0.03) and a 20.1% improvement in PVR compared to baseline.

Additionally, adverse events observed in the study were consistent with other prostacyclin treatments for the management of PAH, with headache, nausea, diarrhea, jaw pain and flushing being the most commonly reported adverse events.