Brainstorm’s rally fizzles after investors turn sour on questionable ALS data
Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics worked hard Monday morning to make the case that a small Phase II study of its lead stem cell therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) provided plenty of reasons for optimism about Phase III. But after taking a second look at the data, a short-lived pop in the company’s share price turned into a sharp decline by mid-morning.
The Israeli biotech $BCLI cut itself considerable slack in the study, setting a p value of <0.1 for statistical significance. They also set up a subset analysis to examine the effect on patients, “excluding slowly progressing patients who are less likely to have a detectable benefit from NurOwn.” And they added a survey of physicians to support their contention that even a modest change in the slope of decline for patients would be “clinically meaningful.”
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