By Colin Kellaher
Verve Therapeutics shares rose sharply in premarket trading Monday after the clinical-stage genetic-medicines company reported positive early study data for its Verve-102 gene-editing drug targeting a cholesterol driver of atherosclerosis.
Shares of the Boston company, which closed Friday at $3.26, were recently up 45% to $4.74.
Verve said Verve-102 was well-tolerated among 14 participants across three dose levels in a Phase 1b study in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and/or premature coronary artery disease, with no treatment-related serious adverse events and no clinically significant laboratory abnormalities observed.
Verve-102 is designed to be a single-course treatment that permanently turns off the PCSK9 gene in the liver and durably reduces low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL-C.
Verve said a single infusion of Verve-102 led to dose-dependent decreases in blood PCSK9 protein levels and LDL-C, with a mean reduction in blood LDL-C of 53% and a maximum LDL-C reduction of 69% observed among four participants in the 0.6 mg/kg dose cohort.
Verve on Friday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted fast-track designation to Verve-102.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 14, 2025 08:08 ET (12:08 GMT)
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