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Dual-listed across the Nasdaq composite and the ASX, Neuren Pharma (ASX:NEU) has jumped +7% down under in the morning Thursday session as sales of its flagship drug DAYBUE jump +14% on Q2 2024.
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Net sales jumped to A$147.8 million as Neuren reported record patient numbers for the drug in the U.S.; a figure that’s climbed three quarters in a row.
Presumably, part of this was due to the company’s relationship with Acadia, which effectively bought DAYBUE off Neuren in 2018 and acts as something like a distributor.
But what the sales jump, and share price increase, may be a better reflection of is that the market has forgotten a February 2024 short seller report that substantiated itself with claims from parents of children dosed with DAYBUE that the drug ‘made things worse.’
Short firm Culper Research claimed that Acadia had misrepresented the safety profile of the drug when selling it to Americans and that the drug hospitalised 10% of children who used it.
On the day of its release (Australian session), shares tanked -13%.
Of course, there are two things the chart tells us. That price performance dipped slightly before the short report, and a second downside event in late July to early August of 2024 would end up being more damaging for the company.
(That was in part because the second phase trial results around a drug treating Angelman Syndrome in children failed to impress.)
Long story short, that revelation ended up being more damaging than the works of Culper Research, and it looks like the market’s on its way to shrugging it off.
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Among HotCopper forum users on Thursday, some were left wondering where Neuren was with its ongoing Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS) trial, which is using NNZ-2591 – the same drug involved in the Angelman Syndrome Phase 2 trial back in mid-2024 that tanked Neuren.
NEU last traded at $18.13/sh.
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