ACHN Crushed, OMED Chugs Along, SYNTA To Watch Out For, ZLCS On A High

(RTTNews) - Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACHN) plunged over 44% to $4.01 in extended trading on Friday after the company announced that the FDA has not removed the clinical hold related to its hepatitis C drug candidate Sovaprevir at this time despite all the issues having been addressed.

The FDA placed a clinical hold on Sovaprevir in July of this year after a phase I healthy subject drug-drug interaction study evaluating the effects of concomitant administration of Sovaprevir with another drug, Ritonavir-boosted Atazanavir, resulted in elevations in liver enzymes.

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s (OMED) lead anti-cancer stem cell therapeutic Vantictumab has been found to be well tolerated and has surpassed the target efficacious dose from preclinical models in an ongoing phase 1a clinical trial, according to new data presented by the company. Vantictumab will be advancing to three phase 1b trials later this year.

OMED closed Friday's trading at $16.29, down 0.91%.

Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (SNTA) said that the final analysis of a phase 2b/3 study of its lead drug candidate, Ganetespib, in patients with advanced non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma, dubbed GALAXY-1 trial, is expected in Q4 2013.

The company's phase III study of Ganetespib in patients with advanced non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma is known as GALAXY-2 trial, and results are expected in 2014.

SNTA closed Friday's trading at $6.68, up 2.30%.

Zalicus Inc. (ZLCS) touched a new high of $1.05 on Friday before closing at $0.97, following the receipt of FDA's Orphan Drug designation for its drug candidate Z160 for the management of postherpetic neuralgia.

Z160 is under two phase II studies for chronic neuropathic pain indications including postherpetic neuralgia and lumbosacral radiculopathy. Top-line results of both studies are expected in the fourth quarter of 2013.