Minerva Neurosciences Soars 60% Following Parkinson's Disease Treatment News

Shares of Minerva Neurosciences Inc NERV soared over 60 percent in Tuesday’s pre-market following positive news on its Parkinson’s Disease treatment.

The company announced that results from a Primomed (use of PRIMate MOdels to support translational MEDicine) non-human primate study showed that treatment with an analog of MIN-301, the company's investigational neuregulin-1 compound, resulted in improvements in a range of symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease in primates.

MIN-301 is a recombinant form of the neuregulin-1β1 extracellular domain. The analog used in the Primomed study differs from MIN-301 by a single amino acid.

"We believe that MIN-301 and its analog are functionally identical and that this data provides further support for advancing MIN-301 into clinical trials for the treatment of Parkinson's disease in humans," stated Dr. Rémy Luthringer, Ph.D., president and CEO of Minerva. "We believe MIN-301 and other peptides from our neuregulin platform may represent the next generation of therapies with neuroprotective activities in Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative disorders."

Minerva Neurosciences Inc recently traded at $9.47 in the pre-market, up 59.80 percent.