Why Intra-Cellular Therapies Is Surging Today

Shares of Intra-Cellular Therapies (NASDAQ: ITCI), a clinical-stage pharma company focused on diseases of the central nervous system, jumped more than 17% as of 3:15 p.m. EDT on Thursday. The bullish move was caused by the company's release of positive clinical news related to its lead compound lumateperone.

Intra-Cellular announced top-line data from part one of an open-label switching safety study. The 302 patient trial took patients with stable symptoms of schizophrenia off their current standard-of-care antipsychotic medications and switched them to Intra-Cellular's compound lumateperone for six weeks. Afterwards, they were switched back to their standard-of-care therapy and observed for two more weeks.

The results from the study showed that when patients were switched to lumateperone they displayed statistically significant improvements in many parameters. Specifically, favorable changes in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin sensitivity, and prolactin were observed during the six-week period. Importantly, these favorable changes reversed themselves once patients were returned to their prior therapy.

Source: Fool.com