A beaten down micro-cap biotech company, Vistagen Therapeutics Inc., is having its best day ever, surging north of four digits after its experimental nasal spray for social anxiety disorder hit targets in a late-stage trial.
Shares of the drug developer surged by a record 1,370% on Monday, sending the stock to its highest level in more than a year. The unexpected success pushed the stock’s market value to above $130 million, a level it had been trading below for the better part of a year amid a broad market selloff in risky assets and a prior trial setback.
Vistagen said the study of fasedienol nasal spray met its main goal, showing improvements on patients’ reported distress in a public speaking challenge while a secondary goal was also met with no severe or serious adverse events reported. The stock had been setting record lows this year after a previous late-stage trial of the drug failed to reach its main goal using the same scale measuring patient distress, dubbed SUDS, last year.
“Fasedienol demonstrated a rapid and very clinically meaningful reduction in SUDS score, indicating a single administration has the potential to reduce anxiety symptoms during an anxiety-provoking situation,” Michael Liebowitz, a founder of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a member of Vistagen’s advisory board, said in a statement.
An additional late-stage study is planned. That will include multiple administrations of the spray over several weeks on what the company said will be “a patient-tailored, as-needed basis.”
The stock had four analysts covering it with a buy rating as of last July, before the stock plunged. Now, the lone analyst tracked by Bloomberg that covers the stock rates it a hold.
US-listed shares of Australian peer Bionomics Ltd. surged as much as 69% before paring gains to trade up around 3%. Bionomics is also developing a social anxiety drug.
