The Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX: CUV) share price has been on form on Tuesday.
In afternoon trade, the biopharmaceutical company's shares are up 6% to $20.40.
Why is the Clinuvel share price jumping?
The catalyst for the rise in the Clinuvel share price on Tuesday has been the release of preliminary results relating to a pilot study.
According to the release, the company has achieved positive results from a pilot study (CUV801) evaluating afamelanotide in six adult patients with arterial ischaemic stroke (AIS) who were ineligible to receive standard treatment.
The release explains that the trial focused on the safety of multiple afamelanotide doses and patient recovery over 42 days. The latter was judged using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and brain imaging (CTP and MRI).
Importantly, the study shows that afamelanotide was well tolerated with no adverse side effects. But perhaps most encouraging, was that the analysis of the NIHSS scores up to day eight indicated that five of the six stroke patients showed neurological improvement and a strong degree of functional recovery.
Clinuvel's Head of Clinical Operations, Dr Pilar Bilbao, commented: "This is the first time that a melanocortin has been administered to stroke patients. No adverse drug reactions were reported, and a meaningful improvement was seen in five of the six patients' health by day 8."
The company will now wait for the final results of the study once it reaches the 42-day mark.
Dr Bilbao added: "We are awaiting the results from the final evaluation of the patients at day 42, which will give us further data on afamelanotide as a possible treatment for this life-threatening disease."
The Clinuvel share price is still down almost 30% in 2022 despite today's solid gain.
