Despite the sea of red in U.S. markets today, one stock that has been showing stellar gain is biotech company Cara Therapeutics (CARA).
Cara, a biotech that has been developing treatments for itchiness, rose 12.6% in pre-market trade Wednesday after the company released studies that dialysis patients experiencing itchiness who were given its Korsuva injection showed statistically significant improvement as compared with those on a placebo. Itchiness is a common issue among patients on dialysis. The stock is currently up more than 15% today.
“We are extremely pleased with the robust topline results from our first pivotal Phase 3 trial of KORSUVA Injection and are particularly encouraged by the early anti-pruritic response with Korsuva Injection, which resulted in statistically significant separation from placebo after only one week of treatment and a sustained significant benefit through 12 weeks,” said Derek Chalmers, Cara’s president and chief executive officer. “We look forward to reporting topline data from our second global Phase 3 trial, KALM-2, in the second half of this year and, assuming positive results, moving towards an NDA submission as quickly as possible thereafter.” Shares of Cara have gained 38% in the year to date through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.77% has gained 11.8%.
The improvement in itching for patients receiving Korsuva was incredible. The key metric in determining statistical significance in clinical studies is the p-value, a calculated probability of how meaningful the obtained results actually are. A p-value of 0.05 or less is considered to be statistically significant. For the primary endpoint in Cara’s study, the p-value was 0.000019.
When investors are looking for more aggressive rates of growth, biotech stocks typically represent some of the best opportunities for rapid appreciation. These companies spend a plethora of time and massive amounts of money to fund breakthrough biological treatments and diagnostic tools. Blossoming developments can literally change their fortunes, and the fortunes of shareholders overnight.
For those investors looking to diversify a portfolio or to add some growth stocks like Cara, a biotech ETF is an often safer way to engage with the biotech sector. Here are several of the top performing biotech ETFs in 2019 to consider: ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF (ARKG), Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF (BBC), SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI), Virtus LifeSci Biotech Products ETF (BBP).
For more investing trends, visit ETFtrends.com.