Be All Ears For ABEO, Lucentis PFS Gets FDA Nod, XOMA Effects Stock Split

(RTTNews) - Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (ABEO) is slated to present top-line results of the low-dose cohort for ABO-102 in Phase 1/2 clinical trial for Sanfilippo type A patients at the Orphan Drugs and Rare Disease Congress taking place in London, UK, from October 19th through October 20th.

Sanfilippo Syndrome Type A, or MPS IIIA, is a rare autosomal recessive disease that causes neurocognitive decline, speech loss, loss of mobility, and premature death.

ABEO closed Friday's trading at $6.74, up 0.45%.

Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s (ICPT) obeticholic acid, proposed for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis, has been recommended for approval by European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, provided the company submits further data post-approval to confirm benefit.

Primary biliary cholangitis, or PBC, is a rare, autoimmune cholestatic liver disease that puts patients at risk for life-threatening complications. It is primarily a disease of women, afflicting approximately one in 1,000 women over the age of 40.

The company's obeticholic acid, under brand name Ocaliva, was granted accelerated approval by the FDA for the treatment of PBC in May of this year, and was commercially launched the following month.

ICPT closed Friday's trading at $142.49, down 1.12%.

The FDA has approved Roche Group's (RHHBY) Lucentis 0.5 mg prefilled syringe as a new method of administering the medicine to treat people with wet age-related macular degeneration and people with macular edema after retinal vein occlusion.

The Lucentis PFS (prefilled syringe), which is the first syringe prefilled with an anti-VEGF medicine FDA-approved to treat two eye conditions, is expected to be available in early 2017.

Sales of Lucentis fell by 12% to CHF 704 million in the first half of 2016.

RHHBY.OB closed Friday's trading at $29.69, down 0.07%.

Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TTPH) has dosed the first patient in its phase III clinical trial of its lead product candidate Eravacycline in patients with complicated intra-abdominal infections.

The trial, dubbed IGNITE4, is comparing intravenous Eravacycline against approved antibiotic Meropenem. The top-line data from this trial are expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.

TTPH closed Friday's trading at $3.39, down 3.42%.

XOMA Corp. (XOMA) is all set to implement a 1-for-20 reverse stock split on October 17, 2016, in order to regain compliance with the $1.00 minimum bid price required for continued listing on the NASDAQ Global Market.

The company expects the reverse stock split to become effective at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 17, 2016. XOMA's common stock will begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Market on a split-adjusted basis from October 18, 2016.

XOMA closed Friday's trading at $0.39, down 6.72%.