Disc Medicine's (IRON) light sensitivity treatment succeeded in a midstage study Monday, but an outsized placebo response confounded the results and the biotech stock plummeted.
The biotech company is trying to treat erythropoietic protoporphyria, a rare condition in which a toxic substance called protoporphyrin IX builds up in the blood. Patients experience severe reactions in the sunlight, including pain, swelling, burning sensations, blistering and disfigurement.
After 17 weeks, patients who received Disc's drug, bitopertin, had statistically significant reductions in protoporphyrin IX.
But the secondary goal of the study — time spent in the sunlight without pain — wasn't statistically significant due to a "greater than expected" response from the placebo group, Disc said in a news release. On average, low-dose and high-dose patients spent 175.1 hours and 153.1 hours in the sunlight without pain, respectively. Placebo patients reached 133.9 hours.
In premarket trades on today's stock market, Disc stock crashed 59.4% to 25.30.
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