Chelsea Therapeutics Rallies on Droxidopa Data (NASDAQ:CHTP)

Chelsea Therapeutics International (NASDAQ:CHTP) said its drug Droxidopa has a benefit for five neurological disorder symptoms. CHTP will continue to further investigate these benefits even though last week Chelsea announced the drug did not meet its primary endpoints of the trial.

Blame this failure to meet the primary endpoints on a poor trial design and the higher than anticipated placebo response. Dr. Simon Pedder, President and CEO of Chelsea Therapeutics, says they will have a more comprehensive review of the studies data to determine what effects the higher placebo effects had and also look for other contributing factors.

Shares surged today over 20% on the positive news but it still comes nowhere close to making up for the 61% drop CHTP experienced when Droxidopa did not meet its endpoints.

Chelsea will have a better chance of demonstrating its effectiveness in the second phase 3 study of Droxidopa since it will be designed in such a way that it shouldn’t cause a higher placebo response again and hopefully prove to be statistically significant.