Shares of Halozyme Tick Higher, Company Confirms $5 Million Milestone Payment From AbbVie

Shares of

were trading higher by 0.62 percent during Thursday's afternoon. Halozyme Therapeutics

earlier in the day that

has dosed its first subject in a clinical trial evaluating the safety and pharmacokinetics of adalimumab with Halozyme's proprietary

technology. The initiation of the clinical study triggered an automatic $5 million milestone payment to Halozyme as part of a prior agreement established between the 2 companies. "We are pleased that the first product candidate with AbbVie has been advanced into clinical testing just seven months after forming our collaboration agreement," said Dr. Helen Torley, president and chief executive officer. "The progress is encouraging as we seek to help an even broader population of patients with our ENHANZE platform." Shares of AbbVie were trading higher by nearly 2 percent at $58.13.