Circassia Pharmaceuticals PLC’s (LON:CIR) rollercoaster ride turned upwards as a new treatment for smoker’s cough being developed with AstraZeneca passed its final (efficacy) trial.
Dualkir is being developed by the UK pharma giant, but will be marketed in the US by Circassia, where it has exclusive rights.
Astra now plans to submit a new drug application the US Food and Drug Administration in 2018.
Smoker’s cough is the common name for COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), an often fatal disease which affects an estimated 329mln people around the world and is the result of lung damage from smoking, pollution and some types of job.
Dualkir, inhaled twice daily, achieved its primary endpoint of a substantial improvement in patients’ breathing in people with moderate to severe COPD.
Astra enrolled 1,500 patients in a number of countries for the trial.
Steve Harris, Circassia's chief executive, said: "We are delighted with these positive phase III results and believe Duaklir has the potential to provide a valuable treatment option for COPD patients in the United States.
“We look forward to our partner AstraZeneca filing an NDA for Duaklir in the coming months.”
Circassia regroups after allergy hit
Circassia’s value slumped last year when its flagship pet allergy product failed a phase III trial prompting it to cancel a grass allergy treatment and a dosing study on a potential ragweed allergy product.
Prior to that it had been riding high as a potential challenger to GlaxoSmithKline in the Asthma inhalers space, where it still generates its current revenues.
Broker Numis upped its target price to 180p, 100% upside, on the back of today’s announcement but expects a more detailed update with the interims at the end of the month.
That should also give an update on the prescription trends for Tudorza, another COPD collaboration with Astra, and growth in the installed base of the NIOX asthma platform.
Shares in Circassia jumped 13% to 87p, while the much larger Astra climbed 0.7% to 4,608p.
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