2023-07-25 14:32:00 ET
Shares of Stoke Therapeutics (NASDAQ: STOK) were down more than 34% as of 1:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The clinical-stage biotech company released positive early trial news regarding its lead therapy, but the stock hit a new 52-week low at $6.12 a share. Stoke's shares are down 31% this year.
Stoke focuses on upregulating protein expression with RNA-based therapies to treat severe diseases, especially those of the central nervous system and the eye. The company's lead pipeline candidate, STK-001, is being tested in phase 1/2 trials as a treatment for Dravet syndrome, a progressive genetic epilepsy disorder. STK-001 works by restoring protein levels in patients who have the haploinsufficiency that causes the syndrome.
The drop was due to two factors. The first was the typical selling on positive news. However, not all the news was positive, which is why the stock really dropped. There were no significant safety issues raised by STK-001, though there were some adverse events in the trials that included vomiting, irritability, and elevated CSF protein levels. Of the 74 patients in the trial, 20% had some type of treatment-emergent serious adverse event, but not so serious they discontinued their trial participation.
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Why Shares of Stoke Therapeutics Plummeted Tuesday