SIGA Shares Double on Smallpox Drug News

Shares of SIGA Technologies (SIGA) more than doubled on Wednesday after the company announced positive news from its lead drug SIGA-246 for smallpox.

SIGA-246 was shown to prevent smallpox in primates that have an amount of variola, the virus responsitble for smallpox, equal to that of late stage infections in humans. Researchers believe that the drug shows great potential in the prevention of smallpox in humans even several days following exposure.

There has not been a single naturally occuring smallpox incident since 1977. The study by SIGA in primates is the closest that research has come to studying the disease in humans.

The company also declared that SIGA-245 was the first ever example of 100% prevention of smallpox in a primate trial.

SIGA stock jumped by more than 120% to end trading at $4.54, with over 165x the daily average volume.

Interesting to note that a large trade was made in SIGA stock right before closing late Tuesday. The news of the study was released early Wednesday morning.