Cephalon shares jump after Nuvigil study data
Shares of Cephalon surged Tuesday after the company said its drug Nuvigil met key study goals in a clinical trial involving adults with bipolar disorder.
The stock jumped $4.14, or 6.6 percent, to $67.38 in midday trading. Shares have traded between $58.96 and $81.35 over the last 52 weeks.
Early Tuesday, the company reported that patients taking Nuvigil along with mood stabilizers in an eight-week midstage study showed improvement in depression symptoms. The drug, which is already approved to treat narcolepsy, was also well-tolerated by patients.
Bipolar I disorder affects about 2 million American adults. The condition involves extreme fluctuations between mania and depression.
Side effects in the study included mania, hypomania, depression and suicidal thoughts, but were comparable with patients taking placebo. Restlessness and anxiety were also side effects experienced by the Nuvigil group.
The company plans on moving the drug along to late-stage trials, which are larger in scale, to further test the drug’s effectiveness in treating bipolar disorder.
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