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

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The company said that, after four a mid-stage clinical triall of its former LymphoStat-B lupuss drug, now called belimumab and brandedas Benlysta, helpedf improve the conditions of 57 percent of systemicf lupus erythematosus patients, compared to 46 percent of patients after only one year. Human Genom Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) also saw a significant decrease in side effect s betweenthe one-year and four-year assessments. The news gave some comforty to investors, who have been skeptical of thelupues drug’s chances for success.
With tradingy volumes at nearly six times daily investors drove HumanGenome Sciences’ stock up by as much as 28 perceny since Thursday’s opening bell befored it settled at $3.22, a 19 percent bump, by late Though, the company will undergop a more rigorous test on Wall Street next when it expects to release the first batcy of results from a late-stager clinical trial of belimumab. The second batch is slatex for aNovember release. Humam Genome Sciences is in the final stages of conducting two third-phase trials, each with more than 800 patients. One is lastint for 76 weeks and another for 52 though both will be measured for their effectivenesds at52 weeks.
Lupus, which hasn’t seen a new treatmenf on the market in the lastfive decades, offersd some inviting market sharee to the first companty to reverse that, but analysts have brushed off Human Genome chances as being unlikely given how difficult of a diseaswe lupus is to treat. In March, California-basee Genentech Inc. and Massachusetts-based Biogen Idec rackesd up one of the most recengt failuresin third-stage clinical trials for a drug to treat lupus a kidney inflammation that’s a complicatiobn of systemic lupus erythematosus.
Human Genome initial Phase II trial for belimumab was conductexd with 449 patients in 2005 in a trialpthat hadn’t achieved everythinvg it had set out to do, though patientsx were measured after less than a year in some cases at that time. The company continued to track patients who volunteered to remain in the midstagedtrials -- 345 patients, or 77 percent, after 52 296 patients, or 66 percent, after 76 and 213 patients, or 47 percent, as of June 1.