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By Denny Jacob
Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals climbed in post-market trading on Tuesday after the biopharmaceutical company provided an update on the eye-disease drug Syfovre, which has been dogged by safety concerns in recent weeks.
The stock surged 32% to $40.78. The shares closed market session down 2.3% at $30.76, and have dropped 41% this year.
The company said a causal relationship hasn’t been established between structural variations in a 19-gauge filter needle and events of retinal vasculitis.
The company recommends practitioners immediately discontinue use of any injection kits that contain the 19-gauge filter needle and use injection kits with the 18-gauge filter needle, which are already in distribution. While injection kits previously contained one of the two types of filter needles, Apellis said it is now exclusively distributing injection kits with the 18-gauge filter needle.
“To date, more than 100,000 vials have been distributed for commercial use and for administration in clinical trials, and the events of retinal vasculitis continue to be very rare at an estimated real-world rate of 0.01% per injection,” Chief Medical Officer Caroline Baumal said.
A notification by the American Society of Retina Specialists recently stated that six patients experienced occlusive retinal vasculitis following their first Syfovre injections. Apellis’ final-phase studies stated no patients experienced this severe form of inflammation.
Syfovre is an approved therapy for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration.
Write to Denny Jacob at [email protected]
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