Intra-Cellular shares mauled as a firestorm of speculation over adcomm cancellation spreads across BioTwitter
Rumors of bad news can flicker around the BioTwitter world in a heartbeat. And the impact can be devastating.
On Tuesday the target was Intra-Cellular Therapies $ITCI, and the rumor was pegged to an update on the FDA’s webpage that noted the agency was canceling the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting for July 31 and the review planned for the biotech’s schizophrenia drug, lumateperone tosylate capsules.
For the legions of investors looking for something, anything, on the internet to bet on with what might be an inside clue to a catalyst, it was pure gold. Had regulators already decided against the drug? What could it mean? It had to be bad, right?
Disaster!
The company’s stock was shredded, dropping more than 30% on the speculation. More than $150 million in market cap was gone in a snap as word of the move spread.
Then, after the market closed, Intra-Cellular tried to staunch the flow of red. The biotech put out a statement saying that they had supplied additional information on their drug that the agency wanted extra time to study — hence the decision to strike the adcomm.
The FDA cancelled the Advisory Committee meeting to allow sufficient time to review this new and any forthcoming information as they continue the NDA review. This information may result in an extension of the September 27, 2019 Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date for the lumateperone NDA.
That was good for a 9% rebound after the bell on Tuesday.