(Reuters) – COVID-19 patients with pneumonia improved faster when treated with Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc’s experimental therapy than those on placebo, the company said on Tuesday, citing an interim analysis of data from a late-stage study.
Shares of the U.S. drug developer rose nearly 10% before the opening bell.
Vanda said a larger sample size of patients would be required to determine whether the drug, tradipitant, offers a benefit to hospitalized COVID-19 patients with pneumonia.
The data from 60 patients in the trial, which aims to eventually enroll 300 patients, showed that a 14-day treatment with tradipitant helped speed up clinical improvements by day seven, the company said.
The U.S. drug developer has licensed tradipitant from Eli Lilly and Co. The drug is also being tested as a treatment for the gastric condition gastroparesis.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
