Receptos Gains 2%, CEO Touts Phase II Trials

Receptos Inc RCPT gained more than 2 percent after its chief executive said recent data on a promising colitis drug candidate are "as good as it gets."

After popping about 2 percent, shares of the drug development company changed hands recently at $127.16, up 0.51. Since September, Receptos is up 155 percent.

Chief Executive Faheem Hasnain made the remark in an interview Thursday on CNBC's "Mad Money."

The company said recently that the drug, called Ozanimod, or RPC1063, met primary endpoints in a Phase II trial as a treatment for colitis, with data presented Febraury 21 at a conference in Barcelona.

Ozanimod late last year met primary endpoints of a Phase II study as a treatment for relapsing multiple sclerosis.

A Phase III study in colitis and a Phase II study in Crohn's disease are expected in 2015.

"We have been known up until this point in time as a multiple sclerosis company," Hasnian told CNBC. "What is really exciting and what's new is this data in inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, specifically."