The Dimerix Ltd (ASX: DXB) share price has shot 6% higher to start the day after an update from the drug discovery company.
Why is the Dimerix share price surging higher?
Dimerix provided an update on its Phase 3 ACE2 renin angiotensin system (RAS) modulation study domain in Europe. The first 24 patients have been recruited into the study in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, which incorporates DMX-200. DMX-200 is Dimerix's chemokine receptor (CCR2) blocker that has been included in the global COVID-19 trial.
The Dimerix share price has rocketed higher on the news with 22 patients from the Netherlands and 2 in the UK. Patients receive one of three randomly assigned interventions or a control as part of the study.
It comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recorded 5.2 million new cases of COVID-19 in the last 7 days. That's the most cases in a week since the beginning of the pandemic with both case numbers and deaths increasing in recent weeks.
The Dimerix feasibility/Phase 3 study is a "multi-centre, randomised, standard of care vs multi-active comparators platform study in patients with COVID-19". The three RAS blockade strategies are:
- Angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB)
- ARB in combination with DMX-200
- Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor
- No RAS inhibitor (no placebo)
How have the company's shares performed?
The Dimerix share price rocketed higher on the news this morning before paring back some gains throughout the morning. Shares in the Aussie biotech company have been volatile in the last year or so.
In fact, the ASX biotech share plunged 63% lower in just one day, back in September 2020. That came after the company reported results from its phase 2 study of DMX-200 in patients with diabetic kidney disease. The study showed no statistically significant difference across the cohort between those receiving DMX-200 and the placebo treatment.
However, the Dimerix share price has gained 8.3% so far in 2021 including today's early gains.
