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Quantum's drug reduces high blood pressure in mid-stage trial; stock soars

Quantum Genomics Société Anonyme said its medicine firibastat helped reduce high blood pressure, meeting the main goal of a mid-stage study.

The Paris-based biotechnology company's stock rose 26.25% to €3.03 at the close of trading in the French capital.

Firibastat belongs to a class of drugs that target the brain to treat hypertension and heart failure. The experimental medicine works by blocking an enzyme called aminopeptidase A in the brain, which activates certain hormones that cause hypertension or high blood pressure.

Quantum's phase 2b trial, dubbed New-Hope, enrolled 256 overweight and obese patients with arterial hypertension from groups known to be more prone to treatment-resistant hypertension, including at least 50% African American and Hispanic patients.

After eight weeks of treatment, the drug helped reduce systolic blood pressure — the main goal of the trial by 9.7 millimeters of mercury from when treatment began. The systolic blood pressure reading gauges the amount of pressure in the arteries during the contraction of the heart muscle.

Quantum said the medicine also showed a reduction of 4.3 millimeters of mercury in diastolic blood pressure. The diastolic reading measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats.

The company said firibastat was well-tolerated and that blood glucose levels and kidney function also remained stable.

Quantum is thinking of undertaking a phase 3 trial of the drug for treatment-resistant hypertension.