Lpath Inc (NASDAQ:LPTN)
Shares of Lpath Inc. (LPTN) surged Monday, after the company announced it was awarded a government grant to develop its pain treatment, Lpathomab. On Monday morning, Lpath stated that it was awarded a two-year, $1.45 million grant by the U.S. Department of Defense’s to support the study of Lpathomab for the treatment of pain associated with traumatic brain injury.
The grant will fund preclinical studies to evaluate the efficacy of Lpathomab. Recently, Lpath completed a Phase 1 trial that concluded that Lpathomab was tolerated at all doses, with no serious adverse safety events MarketWatch.
LPTN Executive Comments
Roger Sabbadini, Ph.D., Lpath’s founder and co-principal investigator on the TBI project, commented,
“Lpath is grateful to the DoD for recognizing the significant value of funding further development of Lpathomab. We believe our novel approach of targeting bioactive lipids holds great promise, and this is validated by the financial commitment from the DoD’s DMRDP.”
Dario Paggiarino, M.D., Lpath’s senior vice president and chief development officer commented,
“Now that Lpath has successfully demonstrated safety and tolerability of Lpathomab in healthy volunteers, we anticipate testing Lpathomab in patients with neuropathic pain. The preclinical demonstration of Lpathomab’s potential efficacy in TBI pain could support another important indication for further investigation.”
Technical Analysis
LPTN gapped up in price by 62% Monday in morning trading, and closed the day at $3.44, up 47.12% from previous day’s close of $2.08. The stock crossed above its 50 day moving average as well as its 200 day moving average, potentially improving its long-term outlook by crossing that significant trend line.
Looking at the chart, we see that the stock has not reach this price level since April, several weeks before that company announced its 1-for-14 reverse stock split. Volume today was 9.8 million, a massive 35.91 times the stock’s normal volume.
Lpath Inc. Recent Financials
On 05/10/2016 Lpath released quarterly financial results for the period ending March 31, 2016.
The company reported revenues of USD 0.01 million, Net Earnings of USD -1.95 million. The year-on-year change in operating cash flow was 60.15%. This was approximately the same as the change in earnings, with likelye no significant movement in accruals or reserves. Earnings rose compared to same period last year, despite decline in operating and pretax margins Capitalcube.
Company Profile
San Diego-based Lpath, Inc. incorporated on October 18, 2002, and is a biotechnology company. The Company is focused on the discovery and development of lipidomic-based therapeutic antibodies. The Company’s product candidates include iSONEP, ASONEP and Lpathomab. The Company utilizes ImmuneY2 technology for the production of its antibodies.
The Company’s product candidate, Lpathomab, is a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) against lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a tumorigenic and metastatic agent and a validated contributor to neuropathic pain and traumatic brain injury. The product is indicated for the treatment of neuropathic pain, chemo-induced pain, traumatic brain injury and fibrosis. The Company has completed dosing in Phase 1a clinical trial in healthy volunteers. The Company competes with Roche Group and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.