Shares of HGSI Up Big in Anticipation of Clinical Trials Update

Shares of Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) are way up to $3.67+0.92 (33.46%) in trading on Thursday. We first told you about this commercially focused biopharmaceutical company whose shares once traded in the $80 to $100 price per share range at the beginning of June, when we mentioned that despite having been beaten badly since then, the company was bidding actively to make a strong comeback. Subscribers to our exclusive FDA and Clinical Trials calendar also knew that HGSI was one of our hottest Extreme Trades of the summer and that recently the company had announced that their experimental antibody treatments helped rabbits and monkeys survive a deadly dose of anthrax bacteria and proved safe in humans, too. The treatment, ABthrax or raxibacumab, works by preventing toxins produced by anthrax bacteria from causing cell damage and death.

On 6/11/09, BioMedReport's Mike Havrilla informed our readers that Human Genome Sciences had announced Phase 2 continuation data which demonstrated sustained improvement in disease activity and patient response rate through four years of BENLYSTA therapy in combination with standard of care in patients with serologically active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The frequency of disease flares as measured by the SELENA SLEDAI flare index and by BILAG A or B organ domain scores decreased over four years of BENLYSTA therapy and there was no increase in overall adverse events, serious adverse events, malignancies or serious infections over time.

Today, shares are rising on "no published news," but our subscribers and readers know that an important development is coming.

HGSI and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have selected BENLYSTA as the brand name for belimumab (formerly known as LymphoStat-B). HGS and GSK expect to report the first Phase 3 data for BENLYSTA in July 2009 from the BLISS-52 trial, with results from BLISS-76 anticipated in November 2009. BLISS-52 and BLISS-76 are the largest clinical trials ever conducted in lupus patients. On 7/1/09, HGSI announced that it expects to have top-line results available on 7/20/09 for BLISS-52, the first of two pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials of BENLYSTA in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

HGSI will host a conference call to discuss the results on 7/20/09 at 8:15 a.m. ET.

Here are the rest of the movers at mid day on Thusday, July 16, 2009:

Gainers (% price change)	Last Trade	Change	Mkt Cap
Human Genome Sciences	HGSI	3.60	+0.85 (30.91%)	488.84M
Elan Corp., plc [ADR]	ELN	7.52	+0.70 (10.26%)	3.58B
Idenix Pharmaceuticals	IDIX	3.83	+0.35 (10.06%)	226.26M
SuperGen, Inc.	SUPG	2.44	+0.20 (8.93%)	144.17M
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc	VNDA	12.41	+0.71 (6.07%)	330.77M
Losers (% price change)
ArQule, Inc.	ARQL	5.50	-0.51 (-8.49%)	245.62M
Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.	FOLD	10.06	-0.73 (-6.77%)	227.79M
Medarex inc.	MEDX	8.23	-0.49 (-5.62%)	1.06B
Labopharm Inc. [CAN]	DDSS	2.25	-0.13 (-5.47%)	127.87M
Cambrex Corporation	CBM	4.22	-0.24 (-5.38%)	123.32M
Most Actives (dollar volume)
Amgen, Inc.	AMGN	58.98	+1.11 (1.92%)	59.71B
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	59.16	+0.20 (0.34%)	163.02B
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	14.95	-0.07 (-0.47%)	100.88B
Baxter International Inc.	BAX	54.50	+1.41 (2.66%)	32.97B
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	44.65	-0.63 (-1.39%)	69.00B

Disclosure: No positions

Comments

[aflitzy:]

Thanks for HGSI

Aug 13 08:53 AM