New Haven’s Achillion Pharmaceuticals’ stock price soared this morning on an announcement that regulators would allow trials of its hepatitis-C drug sovaprevir to continue.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted a July 2013 clinical hold on the drug, Achillion disclosed early Tuesday.
The company’s share price was up $1.91, or 45 percent, as of 10 a.m.
Achillion had been working to get regulators to lift the ban, which was the result of high liver enzyme levels observed in clinical patients, but the FDA decided in September to continue it.
“We are also very pleased that the effort by the Achillion team, working in collaboration with the FDA, has resulted in this response for the sovaprevir program,” Dr. David Apelian, Achillion’s chief medical officer, said in a statement.
Achillion also announced that it has begun dosing patients with another hepatitis C drug, ACH-3422, in a Phase 1 trial. Results are expected in the Fall.
