By Connor Hart
Shares of Skye Bioscience gained after the San Diego biopharmaceutical company released a statement Monday highlighting the safety of its in-development obesity treatment compared with other treatments being developed.
The stock was up 15% to $3.60 in afternoon trading. Shares are up 34% since the beginning of the year.
Skye Bioscience's statement comes after Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk on Friday disclosed results from a clinical trial of one of its in-development obesity treatments. The treatment, called monlunabant, achieved a statistically significant weight loss compared to placebo, but users reported mild-to-moderate neuropsychiatric side effects, such as anxiety, irritability and sleep disturbances, Novo Nordisk said.
Skye Bioscience on Monday said this adverse event highlights a difference between its in-development obesity treatment, nimacimab, and Novo Nordisk's monlunabant.
Data from a recent nimacimab trial did not show any adverse neuropsychiatric events in users, which the company attributed to the treatment being a large-molecule CB1 inhibitor rather than a small-molecule CB1 inhibitor.
Chief Scientific Officer Chris Twitty said small-molecule CB1 inhibitors lack adequate restriction from the brain, resulting in an increased potential for neuropsychiatric side effects.
"It is clear that with increased restriction from the brain, nimacimab provides a potential clear safety advantage over a small molecule approach," Chief Executive Officer Punit Dhillon said.
Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 23, 2024 15:11 ET (19:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments