- Thinly traded Ascendis Pharma (ASND) jumps 17% premarket on increased volume in response to its announcement of top-line results from a six-month Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating once-weekly TransCon Growth Hormone in 53 treatment-naive pre-pubertal children with growth hormone deficiency (GHD).
- The data show mean annualized height velocities for two doses of TransCon of 11.9 cm (0.14 mg/kg) and 13.9 cm (0.30 mg/kg). The results were comparable to the 11.6 cm demonstrated with daily injections of Pfizer's (PFE) Genotropin (somatropin [rDNA origin] for injection) at a comparative dose of 0.21 mg/kg/week.
- The company intends to release the full data set at the annual meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology in October. A 12-month, parallel- group Phase 3 trial comparing TransCon to daily injections of growth hormone is expected to commence in mid-2016.