Anavex Soars on Biogen Agreement
Shares of Anavex Life Sciences soared on Wednesday following a material transfer agreement with Biogen.
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Shares of Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: AVXL) soared on Wednesday following a material transfer agreement with Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB). As for the terms of this agreement, Biogen will test Anavex’s lead drug candidate, ANAVEX 2-73 in an oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) differentiation assay.
If all goes well in this study and there is a satisfactory result from the OPC assay study, it may lead to an in vivo remyelination study using a chemical demylination model.
For some background: Anavex is involved in the development of differentiated therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, other central nervous system diseases, pain and various types of cancer. Anavex’s lead drug candidate, ANAVEX 2-73, is currently in a Phase 2a clinical trial for Alzheimer’s disease.
Christopher U. Missling, PhD, president and CEO of Anavex, commented:
Battling demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis requires an understanding of the processes that cause remyelination to fail. Remyelination of demyelinated axons is typically a function of oligodendrocyte precursor cells. These studies will examine the therapeutic role ANAVEX 2-73 may play in permitting remyelination in the brain.
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Excluding Wednesday’s move, Anavex has underperformed the broad markets and is down about 44% year to date.
Shares of Anavex were last seen up 34% at $4.22, with a consensus analyst price target of $12.50 and a 52-week trading range of $1.35 to $14.84.
Biogen was trading at $314.24. The consensus price target is $344.61, and the 52-week range is $223.02 to $333.65.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
