By Dean Seal


Shares of Lisata Therapeutics are trading lower after the company said regulators granted orphan drug designation to its treatment for malignant glioma, a type of brain tumor.

The stock is down 7.5% at $2.82 in premarket trading. Shares initially surged on the news.

The clinical-stage pharmaceutical company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted the designation to LSTA1, its lead product candidate.

Orphan-drug designation is a special status given to drugs that show promise for potentially treating rare, or orphan, diseases that have fewer than 200,000 cases a year in the U.S.

LSTA1 is currently the subject of ongoing or planned clinical studies conducted globally on a variety of solid tumor types, Lisata said. In the coming months, the company plans to launch a study evaluating LSTA1 in previously untreated glioblastoma multiforme. Lisata expects the first patient will be treated in the fourth quarter.


Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-08-23 0852ET