LLY - Verve Therapeutics Stock Remains A Hold After VERVE-101 Enrollment Pause
2024-04-03 11:57:45 ET
Summary
- Enrollment paused in the Verve Therapeutics' phase 1b heart-1 study, using VERVE-101 for the treatment of patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia after a Grade 3 adverse event.
- Despite VERVE-101 setback, the ability to move forward with another PCSK9 inhibitor known as VERVE-102 where the phase 1b heart-2 study is expected to begin any day now in Q2 2024.
- VERVE-102 could be a major change in structure because it has two distinct features compared to its predecessor, which are a different ionizable lipid and the GalNAc delivery system.
- Partnership with Eli Lilly remains in place for now, despite VERVE-101 enrollment being paused.
The last time I wrote about Verve Therapeutics, Inc. ( VERV ) was when it was making progress in advancing the use of its drug VERVE-101 for the treatment of patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia [HeFH] in the phase 1b heart-1 study. This was in a prior Seeking Alpha article I wrote titled "Verve: Potential To Advance Gene Based Editing Drugs for ASCVD." One of the main points I made is that this drug established proof of concept in using VERVE-101 for the treatment of this patient population, reducing LDL-C [bad cholesterol] by as much as 55% after a single dose of it. At this present time, I'm changing my rating to a "hold" for this stock. Why is that? That's because despite good proof-of-concept being established for VERVE-101, there was a grade 3 adverse event observed in one of the patients enrolled for this study that took 0.45 mg/kg dose of it....
Verve Therapeutics Stock Remains A Hold After VERVE-101 Enrollment Pause