Tenax Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TENX) was among the trending tickers on Yahoo Finance today, increasing by over 15% to $2.10 USD by 2:30 pm EST.
The boost came after an analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services said he was “encouraged” by the specialty pharmaceutical company’s update on its study of patients with difficult-to-treat pulmonary hypertension.
“We continue to be encouraged by the company’s progress and anticipate additional patient enrollment going forward,” Ladenburg analyst Jeffrey Cohen told Bloomberg. Ladenburg has given Tenax Therapeutics a “buy” rating with a target price of $9.25 USD.
Tenax Therapeutics Boost Encouraging
The endorsement from Ladenburg is very encouraging, considering the difficulties Tenax Therapeutics has faced in the past following previous study failures, which saw the company’s market value shrink to about $14 million from more than $100 million in 2015.
Earlier this month, Tenax Therapeutics announced that the first patient has been enrolled in its Phase 2 trial, which is designed to evaluate levosimendan in patients with pulmonary hypertension and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (PH-HFpEF).
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The study, which has been dubbed the HELP Trial (Hemodynamic Evaluation of Levosimendan in Patients with PH-HFpEF), plans to enroll 36 patients at 10–12 clinical research sites and is expected to run for six weeks, with eligibility for further study over a two-year period.
Tenax Therapeutics CEO Anthony DiTonno called the enrollment a huge milestone for the company and said they “have been working closely with our highly regarded principal investigators who are actively screening patients for the trial, and we expect additional centers to start enrolling patients over the coming weeks.”
Tenax Therapeutics Trial First of its Kind
According to Tenax Therapeutics, PH-HFpEF represents an area of very high unmet medical need with no approved or effective therapies currently existing to treat patients who suffer from PH-HFpEF.
The preliminary data collected from preclinical and clinical studies of pulmonary hypertension and heart failure patients provide a reason to believe that levosimendan may provide important benefits for these PH-HFpEF patients.
Featured Image: Pixabay
