In a few hours, the course of its action exploded. The French Biotech Abivax had a historic day, Wednesday, July 23, after the announcement of positive results concerning Obefazimod, its candidate-drug intended for the treatment of hemorrhagic rectocolitis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine.
The title has climbed more than 520 % during the day in Paris, the company being valued at 3.6 billion euros at the fence of the Stock Exchange, almost ten times more than the day before. On the Nasdaq, in New York, where the company is also listed, its course flew by more than 560 % shortly after the opening. Rare performance for a tricolor biotech.
The company triggered an investor rush after the announcement of the results of two clinical trials of phase 3, the last step before the marketing of a drug, which it leads to patients with moderate to severe hemorrhagic rectocolitis, a pathology which affects in France near a person in 1000 according to health insurance, and whose frequency increases in the world.
The two studies, carried out on a population of 1,275 patients in 36 countries, have shown that Obefazimod, which is in the form of an oral tablet, “Responded to the main evaluation criterion of the American drug agency, namely clinical remission at week 8” For a dosage of 50 milligrams once a day, according to Abivax. With results surpassing investor expectations.
Not always met success
The secondary evaluation criteria have also been reached, specifies the company. What open the way to a future marketing of this drug, which analysts believe that it has the potential to become a « blockbuster »that is to say a drug exceeding more than a billion dollars (more than 850 million euros) of annual turnover.
“The solidity of these results reinforces our conviction in the potential of Obefazimod (…) to become a new transformative therapeutic option for patients with rectocolitis hemorrhagic ”reacted Marc de Garidel, managing director of Abivax, in a press release. The latter, who is also chairman of the board of directors of the Ipsen laboratory, had been recruited in the spring of 2023 to take the lead. He notably had the successes of American Biotech Cincor Pharma, assigned to the British laboratory Astrazeneca in 2023, and Corvidia Therapeutics, bought in 2020 by the Danish Novo Nordisk.
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