The market may be sinking lower again on Monday, but that hasn't stopped the Medlab Clinical Ltd (ASX: MDC) share price from charging higher.
The cannabis-focused biotech company's shares are up 15.5% to 26 cents in morning trade.
Why is the Medlab share price charging higher?
Investors have been buying Medlab's shares this morning following the release of an independent review of its NanaBis advanced cancer pain trial conducted at the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH).
The clinical trial was a Single Ascending Dose (SAD), Multiple Ascending Dose (MAD) investigation into pain management of patients with metastatic cancers.
According to the release, the trial met its primary endpoints and found that NanaBis is tolerable, efficacious, fast acting, and delivered improvements in quality of life measures. This was particularly the case in role and emotional functioning and insomnia.
In addition to this, secondary endpoints were met. This includes a meaningful pain reduction and significantly less morphine milliequivalent of dispensed opioid analgesics prescribed for breast or prostate cancers with bone metastasis.
Management believes this was a robust trial that has delivered strong results and allows it to focus on Phase 3 designs.
Dr Sean Hall, CEO of Medlab, advised, "With a strong trial design, that involved a professional and strong clinical trial team and collaborators, today we have primary evidence that NanaBis is safe, tolerable and provided a significant benefit in managing pain associated with metastatic cancers."
"There were a number of notable secondary gains, one of the biggest worth mentioning was a drastic reduction of breakthrough medication used by those patients with breast or prostate cancers with bone METs."
Dr Hall concluded: "We can confidently argue, NanaBis has a strong indication for use in pain management and is a compelling therapy for this patient group."
It is still very early days, but there is a potentially big opportunity for the product if everything goes to plan. The company notes that metastatic breast or prostate cancers have a high unmet need, with conservative 2017 numbers suggesting 600,000 patients in USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
