Here's Why United Therapeutics Sank as Much as 10.8% Today
Shares of rare-disease specialist United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) dropped nearly 11% today after the company announced that a phase 3 trial evaluating Orenitram in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH, will continue through completion after an independent interim analysis was conducted. That may sound like an odd reason to send shares lower, but investors were hoping that the trial would be stopped early had the drug shown overwhelming efficacy.
The company apparently understood that expectation. In the press release, it was noted that the threshold for stopping the trial early was set incredibly high, which would allow it to run to completion and hand the company more robust results from observations made over a longer time period. The explanation notwithstanding, investors couldn't shake their disappointment.
As of 12:29 p.m. EDT, the stock had settled to a 10.1% loss.
Source: Fool.com