TORONTO (Reuters) - Forbes Medi-Tech Inc. said on Monday that its cholesterol-lowering agent FM-VP4 may cut levels of bad LDL cholesterol to a greater degree if used for a longer period than the four weeks of a clinical trial it conducted for the compound in Europe.
Shares of Forbes rose more than 12 percent on strong volume after the company released its view on Monday.
Forbes Medi-Tech, which released results of the clinical trial on April 5, said optimal efficacy may not have been achieved at the time it released the initial results.
On April 5, Forbes said that FM-VP4 cut LDL levels on average by 11 percent, less than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 15 percent guideline and well below the 18 percent reduction seen by Zetia, a drug co-marketed by Schering-Plough Corp and Merck.
Those results led investors to sell Forbes Medi-Tech shares, halving their value in one session.
But on Monday, the shares were up 50 Canadian cents, or 12.2 percent, at C$4.60 in Toronto. On the Nasdaq, the shares rose 11.5 percent, or 35 cents, to $3.40
On Friday, Forbes Medi-Tech chief executive Charles Butt told Reuters that the company would soon release more data from its Phase II trial of FM-VP4 in Europe that would show that the compound is viable. The shares closed up 20 percent on both Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday, after rising as high as 30 percent.
“This additional data further supports our decision to move forward as planned with our U.S. Phase II trial,” Butt said in a release on Monday.
The company plans to conduct a Phase II trial in North America for FM-VP4 that will involve more than 100 people and last more than four weeks.
Butt said his company might conduct a 90-day trial in North America but that had not yet been determined.
Shares of Forbes Medi-Tech have risen 440 percent in Toronto in the past year and about 500 percent on Nasdaq in the same period.
($1=$1.35 Canadian).
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