Shares of NephroGenex (NRX) soared as high as 200% on Wednesday after the company announced an excellent safety profile for its drug Pyridorin which treats diabetic nephropathy — diabetic kidney disease. Diabetic nephropathy is a chronic disease of the kidney caused by diabetes. There are around 19 million people in the U.S. diagnosed with diabetes. There are then about 6 million people out of those 19 million people that get diabetic kidney disease.
Pyridorin works by inhibiting pathogenic oxidative chemistries, which are found to be at elevated levels in diabetic patients. These elevated levels of chemistries can cause the ability for these patients to develop diabetic nephropathy. The positive results the other day that caused a huge share price jump was the fact that a safety study showed Pyridorin to be very safe from the lowest dose of 300 mg/kg all the way to the highest dose of 1200 mg/kg. This safety study was known as a QT/QTC interval study — a safety study to determine effects of Pyridorin on the heart.
This is because other current therapies in treatment for diabetic nephropathy show an increased cardiovascular risk for patients. Therefore Pyridorin appears to be the safest form of treatment for these patients. Drugs don't have to only be safe, they have to show efficacy as well. So why did the share price rise on just the heart safety study? Because NephroGenex announced positive efficacy in a previous phase 2 trial.
This drug may end up being very important for these patients because there are currently no treatments to treat diabetic nephropathy. Therefore we believe investors have a great chance to possibly begin a position pending their risk tolerance. Expect profit-taking today that will reduce the stock price from Wednesday's euphoric levels.
NephroGenex initiated two phase 3 studies to test the safety and efficacy of Pyridorin in patients with diabetic nephropathy. Both studies will recruit up to 600 patients who will either receive Pyridorin or a placebo compound. Pending further positive confirmation from these trials, patients suffering from diabetic kidney disease may finally have a drug that can help improve their life.
