The Mesoblast Limited (ASX: MSB) share price has been a strong performer on Tuesday.
In morning trade the leading allogeneic cellular medicines developer's shares are up 4% to $1.98.
Why is the Mesoblast share price charging higher?
Investors have been buying Mesoblast's shares this morning following the release of an update on the phase 3 trial of Revascor for advanced chronic heart failure.
According to the release, Mesoblast has surpassed the number of primary endpoint events required for trial completion.
The cardiovascular outcomes trial has now initiated its final study visits for all surviving patients. It is aiming to complete the last patient visit at the end of January 2020.
After which, final data collection and entry processes will be performed and the database locked. All surviving patients will have been followed for at least 12 months, with a mean follow up period of approximately 30 months.
The results from this pivotal trial are expected to be available by mid-2020.
What is the trial?
The trial in question is a double-blind, randomised, sham procedure-controlled Phase 3 trial.
It is evaluating Revascor as an add-on treatment to standard-of-care for reduction of recurrent non-fatal heart failure-related major adverse cardiac events (HF-MACE) and terminal cardiac events (TCEs) in 566 patients with advanced chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.
In the United States there are more than 6.5 million patients with heart failure. Approximately 15% of this patient population has advanced chronic heart failure and is at high-risk for recurrent HFMACE and TCEs. This high-risk group makes up the predominant patient population in the Revascor Phase 3 trial.
Mesoblast's chief executive, Dr Silviu Itescu, was very pleased with the news.
He said: "We are very pleased to have achieved this important milestone in the largest trial of cell-based therapy for patients with advanced heart failure. These patients have exhausted other treatment alternatives, and have the highest burden of disease, recurrent hospitalizations and mortality."
