Karuna clears PhII hur­dle in schiz­o­phre­nia, takes aim at a piv­otal in block­buster hunt — shares soar

When Karuna went pub­lic last year, the biotech cit­ed one small Eli Lil­ly study of their an­ti-psy­chot­ic xanome­line that de­liv­ered a whop­ping 24-point av­er­age im­prove­ment in schiz­o­phren­ics’ PANSS score over place­bo — far and above the av­er­age 9-10 point ad­van­tage cit­ed for the av­er­age drug ap­proved for use among these pa­tients.

Now, af­ter wrap­ping a big Phase II of a xanome­line com­bo with a siz­able 182 pa­tients, the mar­gin on suc­cess has shrunk con­sid­er­ably, but the team $KRTX can still count on a solid­ly pos­i­tive av­er­age out­come as well as — cru­cial­ly — the safe­ty pro­file they were look­ing for.

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