NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 12, 2018 / Sarepta shares closed in the red on Friday after the company's Essence study was halted in the U.K. Shares of Sage Therapeutics also closed down after announcing an underwritten public offering. Last week the company had received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA for SAGE-217, a major depressive disorder drug.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=SRPT

Sage Therapeutics, Inc.
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=SAGE

Sarepta Therapeutics' shares closed down 3.55% on about 4.5 million shares traded on Friday. Shares slipped after recent reports surfaced that the company has had to put its Essence study on hold in the United Kingdom. The study is for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy in boys that are amenable to skipping exon 53 due to their genes. According to a report, there was "one serious adverse event," but the company is already asking the U.K. for permission to continue moving forward. It has not been made clear which drug in the study was responsible for the adverse event. The serious issue that one patient experienced according to the company, "could possibly be related" to the blinded study, in which patients were given one of two drugs, called golodirsen and casimersen, or a placebo.

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https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=SRPT

Sage Therapeutics' shares closed down nearly 8.37% on Friday on almost 3.5 million shares traded. The clinical-stage biopharma company announced on Friday the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,506,908 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $164 a share. The gross proceeds are expected to be $575 million after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses. Earlier in the week on Thursday the FDA announced that it had granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to SAGE- 217, a drug used for the treatment of major depressive disorder. The regulatory decision was based mostly on the positive results the company had for the Phase 2 placebo-controlled trial of the drug in 89 adult patients who have moderate to severe major depressive disorder. The drug met the primary endpoint in the trial and saw statistically significant mean reduction in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression compared to the placebo. The company also reported that their phase II trials of the drug used to target postpartum depression will only readout in the fourth quarter.

Access RDI's Sage Therapeutics, Inc. Research Report at:
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=SAGE

Our Actionable Research on Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) and Sage Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAGE) be downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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