BerGenBio shares soar on COVID-19 drug trial news (updated)

Oncoinvent ASA

29/04/2020 10:35

* Many pharma firms racing to repurpose drugs
    * Trial will involve 120 hospitalised patients in UK 
    * Shares up nearly 160% on news 

 (Adds detail, background, bullet points updates share)
    By Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche
    OSLO, April 29 (Reuters) - Shares of Norway's BerGenBio more
than doubled on Wednesday after a cancer drug it is developing
was selected for a British trial of potential COVID-19
treatments, the latest instance of a firm seeking to re-purpose
a medicine to fight the pandemic.
    BerGenBio  BGBIO.OL  hopes to get an early indication of its
drug bemcentinib's effectiveness in treating the most vulnerable
COVID-19 patients, the company said. The drug was originally
designed to interfere with a tumour's ability to suppress the
body's immune response against it.    
    The company said the trial is part of its participation in
the UK's ACCORD initiative, short for Accelerating COVID-19
Research & Development.
    BerGenBio joins numerous other pharmaceutical firms coming
forward daily with proposals to redirect existing medicines, or
new ones under development, to the fight against the novel
coronavirus, since there are now no approved treatments.
    "We have been aware of bemcentinib's anti-viral potential
for some time, as demonstrated in preclinical models against
viruses such as Ebola and Zika, with recent data expanding this
to SARS-CoV-2," BerGenBio said in a statement.
    The study will test the medicine in 120 hospitalised
patients, with half getting the drug and half receiving standard
treatment, across six public hospitals in Britain.
    The study is led by the University of Southampton and is
funded by Britain's Department of Health and Social Care and UK
Research and Innovation.   
    The shares were up 158% in early trade to 54 Norwegian
crowns ($5.20). At 0906 GMT they were trading at 39.60 crowns,
up 89.02% from Tuesday's close of 20.95 crowns.

 (Additional reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, writing by
Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, editing by Jason Neely and John Miller)
 ((terje.solsvik@thomsonreuters.com; +47 918 666 70))