Shares of class="mandelbrot_refrag">Halozyme Therapeutics Inc jumped about 11 percent a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted a hold on a trial testing an advanced version of the company's flagship drug delivery technology.
_0">The company said on Wednesday it would restart enrolling patients for the trial following the approval of an amended study design by an independent review boards.
The regulator imposed the hold in April, after Halozyme voluntarily halted the mid-stage study over concerns of a possible difference in the rate of blood clots found in pancreatic cancer patients receiving Halozyme's treatment and those given approved cancer therapies.
Halozyme said it had revised its study design to include another main goal, which will assess the rate of blood clots in patients receiving the therapy.
The trial is testing a more potent form of Halozyme's existing technology to deliver chemotherapy drugs intravenously and prolong the effectiveness of its synthetic enzyme, Hylenex, in the blood stream.
Hylenex helps in the absorption of other medications by breaking down a protective barrier that surrounds cartilage and tumors.
Halozyme said it plans to enroll about 100 patients in addition to the 100 already in the trial.
The San Diego-based company's shares closed at $8.08 on the class="mandelbrot_refrag">Nasdaq on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)