KALA - Kala Pharma jumps 33% after Q3 updates

Kala Pharmaceuticals ( NASDAQ: KALA ), a company focused on treatments for eye diseases, rose ~33% in the morning hours Wednesday after its management brought more clarity to the development of its eye disease candidate KPI-012 with its Q3 2022 results.

KPI-012 is an experimental therapy targeted at the persistent corneal epithelial defect (PCED), a condition affecting about 100K people in the U.S. annually.

With its Q3 results, Kala ( KALA ) reiterated plans to run a Phase 2/3 trial for KPI-012 in Q4 2022, targeting PECD. The company added that it intends to submit an investigational new drug (IND) application to the FDA in this regard within this quarter.

In terms of financials, Kala ( KALA ) reported $52.4M of cash and cash equivalents at the end of Q3 2022 compared to $44.6M at the previous quarter’s end.

Forecasting a 60-70% decline in non-GAAP operating expenses during 2022 compared to the previous year, the company estimates that its cash position can fund operations into Q2 2024, unchanged from its projection three months ago.

Meanwhile, Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating on the stock after the results but raised the price target to $47 from $3 per share to account for the recently-announced reverse stock split.

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