Shares of Conatus Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:CNAT) have taken a dive, dropping over 30%, after releasing the results from their Phase 2b clinical trial.
The POLT-HCV-SVR clinical trial, which studied emiscaran in liver transplant patients with fibrosis or cirrhosis, failed to meet up to the company’s expectations.
There was very little difference in the percentage of patients who had the Emricasan treatment and the placebo group.
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This does not bode well, as the final result was a change of 2.4% when the company was aiming for a change of 15%, or more.
Contrary to the unexpected results, Steven J. Mento, the president, CEO, and co-founder of Conatus Pharmaceuticals, has said, they “are particularly encouraged by the 95% response rate in a subgroup of advanced fibrosis and early cirrhosis patients with a favorable two-year safety profile.”
Patients in the trial were stable transplant recipients and were an average of approximately seven years post-surgery.
The company plans “to evaluate responses in additional subgroups in a variety of secondary and exploratory endpoints to learn as much as possible from this data-rich trial.”
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In the report, Executive Vice President of Clinical Development at Conatus, David T. Hagerty, also thanked patients, clinical investigators and supports staff who participated in the clinical trial.
The company also has a separate patient population clinical trial, as a collaboration Novartis (NYSE:NVS), that will evaluate emricasan in patients with fibrosis or cirrhosis caused specifically by nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) fibrosis or cirrhosis.
Results from this trial are expected for the second half of 2018.
Currently, Conatus shares are sitting at approximately $4.00 USD, which is significantly lower than the $6.01 USD that the company closed at yesterday.
Stock of the company has not been this low since December or 2017.
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