Human Genome Sciences shares jump on test results - Washington Business Journal:

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The company said that, after four years, a mid-stage clinical trial of its former LymphoStat-B lupus drug, now called belimumab and branded as helped improve the conditions of 57 percent of systemic lupuserythematosus patients, compared to 46 percent of patients after only one Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) also saw a significanf decrease in side effectd between the one-year and four-year assessments. The news gave some comfort to investors, who have been skeptical of thelupusd drug’s chances for success.
With tradinvg volumes at nearly six timewsdaily averages, investors drove Humanj Genome Sciences’ stock up by as much as 28 percent sincer Thursday’s opening bell before it settle d at $3.22, a 19 percent bump, by late afternoon. the company will undergo a more rigorous test on Wall Streefnext month, when it expects to release the firs t batch of results from a late-stage clinicalp trial of belimumab. The second batch is slatedc for aNovember release.
Human Genomw Sciences is in the finakl stages of conductingtwo third-phase trials, each with more than 800 One is lasting for 76 weekw and another for 52 weeks, though both will be measuree for their effectiveness at 52 Lupus, which hasn’t seen a new treatment on the markeft in the last five offers some inviting markegt share to the first company to reverse that, but analysts have brushecd off Human Genome Sciences’ chances as beinh unlikely given how difficult of a disease lupusz is to treat. In March, California-based Genentec h Inc.
and Massachusetts-based Biogen Idec racked up one of the most recentr failuresin third-stage clinical trials for a drug to trear lupus nephritis, a kidney inflammation that’s a complicatiohn of systemic lupus erythematosus. Human Genome initial Phase II trial for belimumab was conducted with 449 patientsz in 2005 in a triakthat hadn’t achieved everything it had set out to do, thoughh patients were measured after less than a year in some casess at that time. The compant continued to track patients who volunteered to remain in the midstagwtrials -- 345 patients, or 77 after 52 weeks; 296 patients, or 66 after 76 weeks; and 213 patients, or 47 as of June 1.