Stem cell biotech Mesoblast is thundering its prospects for the new year, as it attempts to recover after losing more than half its value over the last two months of 2018.
Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) chief Dr Silviu Itescu put out a corporate review in late December wrapping up the company’s products in various clinical trials and outlining discussions with potential commercial partners.
Aimed at exciting investors, it did just that, taking the share price up 15 per cent from $1.04 to $1.20. It has continued to carry momentum into the new year, trading up 5pc at $1.32 in early Thursday trade.
It is an attempt at recovery for the medium cap biotech, which lost 53 per cent over November and December after the company’s heart failure trial missed its primary endpoint.
The Phase 2 trial results showed Mesoblast’s drug MPC-150-IM failed to achieve temporary weaning from full left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support.
Dr Itescu told Stockhead at the time he “could not be more excited about the outcome” after other it “achieved a significant reduction in major gastrointestinal bleeding and hospitalisations in patients implanted with a LVAD”.
But investors sold down the stock, with the share price tanking from $2.18 to $1.03 shortly before Christmas.
The corporate review, however, said Mesoblast would “enter 2019 with the most mature cell therapy product pipeline and technology platform in the regenerative medicine industry”, citing two commercially approved products in Europe and Japan, one that has cleared Phase 3 trials and two more in Phase 3 trials with “blockbuster potential”.
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