Why Rigel Pharmaceuticals Stock Jumped Today

Shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RIGL) shot higher on Tuesday after the biotech announced positive topline data from a phase 2 clinical trial for fostamatinib as a treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The stock closed the trading day up by 16.8%, after having been up by as much as 18.8% late in the session.

Fostamatinib is already approved in the U.S. and elsewhere as a treatment for adult chronic immune thrombocytopenia. Rigel Pharmaceuticals is currently running a phase 2 study for the medicine in COVID-19 patients in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Inova Health System, a nonprofit healthcare provider headquartered in Virginia. The trial enrolled 59 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, each of whom received either fostamatinib plus standard of care or a placebo plus standard of care twice a day for 14 days.

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Source Fool.com