Shares of Gracell Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: GRCL) were up 21.5% Tuesday afternoon. The healthcare stock rose for the second consecutive day, boosted by an analyst's upgrade, as well as by positive trial news. The stock is up more than 156% so far this year.

Gracell is a clinical-stage biotech company that makes cell therapies to treat cancers and autoimmune diseases. Over the weekend, the company announced positive long-term follow-up trial data regarding its lead therapy, GC012F, to treat patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The CAR-T therapy is a CD19 and B-cell maturation antigen.

In the study, all nine patients showed an overall response rate nine months after the therapy, with 77.8% having a complete response (CR) rate at three months and 66.7% having a CR at six months. The study comes on the heels of an announcement on June 3 that said GC012F did well in long-term follow-ups as a therapy to treat relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

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Source Fool.com