Monday, November 25th was a tough day for CymaBay Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CBAY). The stock crashed by 76.04% to close the day at $1.33. The market reacted this way after the company announced that, it had closed two studies and stopped a third for Seladelpar.
Seladelpar is an experimental drug for treating non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. It would also have been therapy for two liver diseases namely: primary sclerosing cholangitis and biliary cholangitis. In a statement, the CEO, Sujal Shah said that he was disappointed that they had to take this step. He added that, while the decision was disappointing, it had to be taken for patient care and safety.
The company revealed that the decision to stop the development was grounded on initial findings that were noted in Phase 2b of the study. The company announced that blinded assessments revealed atypical findings. These atypical histological findings in the phase 2b clinical study were noted in patients who showed on-study improvement in biochemical inflammation, and liver injury and non-liver injury after a year of treatment. The CEO further state that, these results were not expected based on the company’s prior experience. The company has launched a number of investigations to understand these findings.
Looking at the company chart (below) these results saw the stock open with a huge gap down and on high volumes, which is indicative of a sell-off. The last time the stock gapped down was in July, and it traded in a bearish channel since that time, until the latest gap down.
About CymaBay Therapeutics Inc
CymaBay Therapeutics Inc is a biopharma company that develops and sells therapies for treating liver and many other chronic diseases. The company’s lead product is Seladelpar that has completed phase 2 trials, but has now been halted. Other products under its fold include MBX-2982 and CB-001. The company has its headquarters in Newark, California.
