Why Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc. Jumped Higher Today

Idera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IDRA) is up 14% at 11:46 a.m. EST after releasing data from a phase 1/2 trial testing its drug candidate IMO-2125 in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb's (NYSE: BMY) Yervoy for the treatment of anti-PD-1 refractory metastatic melanoma.

That's a lot of scientific terms in one sentence, so let's break it down: IMO-2125 is a drug that stimulates toll-like receptor 9, which results in the activation of immune cells called T cells. Yervoy also activates T cells, but it does it by blocking a protein called CTLA-4 that downregulates T cells. Other drugs block PD-1, another protein responsible for downregulating T cells, but these patients failed -- are "refractory" to -- those therapies. Metastatic melanoma is skin cancer that's moved to other parts of the body.

Whew.

Source: Fool.com