Md Babul Hosen Equillium ( NASDAQ: EQ ) shares briefly jumped premarket Tuesday after the biotech posted initial data from a Phase 2 trial for its cytokine inhibitor EQ101, targeted at alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. In addition to the drug's safety and tolerability, investigators used the 36-subject trial to measure SALT, a metric used to assess disease severity. A 100 SALT score indicates total scalp hair loss, and 0 means no scalp loss.
Citing 24-week data, La Jolla, California-based Equillium ( EQ ) said that 20% of patients who received intravenously delivered EQ101 scored 20 or less in SALT, including 29% of those with moderate to severe AA. As for safety, eleven subjects discontinued the trial, including five who attributed their decision to adverse events. The company added that the open-label trial for adults with an average SALT score of 76 led to no serious adverse events over the 24-week treatment period and four-week follow-up.
Equillium ( EQ ) intends to trial EQ101 further in AA, including in studies for a subcutaneous dosing regimen and patients with moderate disease severity. More on Equillium Top 10 best performing biotech stocks of 2024 so far Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Equillium Historical earnings data for Equillium Financial information for Equillium.
