Why Cortexyme Shares Are Plunging 70% After Hours

Shares of a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company are falling in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company shared an update.

What Happened: Cortexyme Inc (NASDAQ: CRTX) reported Phase 2/3 GAIN trial data for its Alzheimer’s disease trial.

The company stated co-primary endpoints were not met for ADAS-Cog11 and ADCS-ADL in the overall population. Subgroups saw a 50% slowing level for infection for ADAS-Cog11.

The company’s orally administered small-molecule targets “gingipain proteases from the bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis."

A statistical significance was not hit by the company in the 643 person study for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

“Today marks a major milestone toward a comprehensive understanding of Alzheimer’s and slowing of disease progression. The evidence from the GAIN trial advances our ability to identify the right patients, impact an upstream target and improve patient outcomes,” Cortexyme CEO and co-founder Casey Lynch said.

What’s Next: The company said it report additional GAIN trial data at CTAD (Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease) 2021 on Nov. 11.

“We are focused on next steps to advance this breakthrough treatment for the benefit of patients and their families,” Lynch said.

The company said it is engaged with regulators, patients and stakeholders to advance COR588, a second-generation lysine-gingipain inhibitor differentiated by novel compound properties and once-daily administration.

CRTX Price Action: Cortexyme shares are down 71.91% to $16.20 Tuesday after-hours at the time of writing. Shares have traded between $26.66 and $121.98 over the last 52 weeks.

Photo: Cristina Seri via Unsplash