BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BCRX) gained 6.2 percent after a study showed that adding the drugmaker’s gout medicine to a standard therapy lowered patients’ uric acid levels better than the usual treatment. BioCryst rose 18 cents to $3.08 at the close of trading in New York. The shares of the Durham, North Carolina-based company have lost 40 percent this year. The experimental medicine, given at varying doses, helped 33 to 49 percent of patients lower serum uric acid to less than 6 milligrams per deciliter when combined with the standard therapy, allopurinol, for 12 weeks, BioCryst said today in a statement. That compares with 18 percent for allopurinol alone. The 279-patient study of the drug, dubbed BCX4208, is from the second phase of three generally required for U.S. regulatory approval.
