ImmuPharma PLC's (LON:IMM) drug Lupuzor needs further analysis and certainly isn’t a bust, according to Vadim Alexandre, analyst at Northland Capital.
With shares down sharply on Tuesday, the reaction to phase III trial results for the lupus drug has been “knee-jerk” and probably not fully reflective of the outlook for the treatment, he said in an interview with Proactive’s Andrew Scott.
The readout from the study showed Lupuzor didn’t have a statistically significant impact on patients compared with the placebo plus the standard of care.
WATCH: Immupharma PLC still confident on Lupuzor's future
However, there are two points to grasp, Alexandre said. First, patients responded particularly well to the placebo plus standard of care because the cortical steroids worked. Second, the drug actually worked well in certain patient groups.
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“We need to see more data,” Alexandre said. “There is a major unmet medical need and there has only been one drug out in the market in the last 50 years and that itself is not a perfect drug.”
On the news ImmuPharma is talking to potential partners, the Northland analyst added: “The primary end-point has not been met, but I think they will be looking at what the possibilities are for doing further and future trials.”
