Keryx Shares Surged: What You Need to Know
Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of drug developer Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NAS: KERX) were soaring today, gaining as much as 12% in intraday trading after the company got the green light from an independent safety monitoring board for its phase 3 study.
So what: Keryx licensed the rights to colorectal cancer treatment perifosine from Aeterna Zentaris (NAS: AEZS) and is progressing nicely on the path to getting the drug approved and on the market. Today, the company took another step forward in that march by getting a go-ahead from the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board to carry through a phase 3 study that will cover 465 patients with advanced colorectal cancer.
Now what: Investors are celebrating today because each incremental step forward in the drug-development process brings a small, money-losing company like Keryx one step closer to being a successful, profitable company. That said, we all know about counting chickens before they hatch, so Keryx investors may not want to let t heir excitement get too out of control quite yet.
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