Investors jazzed after hours over positive test results for fibromyalgia treatment
Shares of Palo Alto’s Jazz Pharmaceuticals rose by more than a third in after hours trading Wednesday after the company reported positive results from the second of its Phase III clinical trials of sodium oxybate, a treatment for the chronic illness known as fibromyalgia known for the widespread pain and chronic fatigue it induces. The drug is being developed jointly with the Belgium biopharmaceutical company UCB.
“As in the first randomized, double-blind fibromyalgia study, sodium oxybate significantly decreased pain and fatigue and improved daily function” as well as patients impression of change, according to a joint press release Wednesday.
The trial, conducted in the United States and seven European countries, included 573 adult patients with fibromyalgia randomized to one of two dose levels of the drug or a placebo. Significantly more patients treated with sodium oxybate achieved 30 percent or greater improvement in their pain compared to patients treated with a placebo, in line with results from the first Phase III trial.
Shares of Jazz Pharmaceutical–which lost 86 percent of their value last year– rose $1.11, or 34 percent, to $4.36 in after hours trading, Wednesday according to Yahoo Finance.
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will this medication be effective for nerve damage, severe burning, periperal pain as a result of Guillian Barre’ Syndrome
I don’t know, but I suspect sodium oxybate works by increasing delta (stage-3/stage 4 or “slow wave”) sleep, which is known to improve fibromyalgia. So if increased delta sleep helps any of the conditions you listed, then I can see how this drug could possibly help. But for flat-out painkilling, maybe not.
Note: I am completely unqualified to answer these questions.