Why Shares of AlloVir Jumped This Week

What happened

Shares of AlloVir (NASDAQ:ALVR) are up more than 48% for the week as of Friday morning, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The healthcare company closed last week at $3.96, then rose to as high as $6.12 on Wednesday. The stock's rise coincided with positive phase 2 trial final data regarding its lead therapy.

So what

AlloVir is a clinical-stage biotech whose lead therapy, posoleucel, is an allogenic off-the-shelf multivirus-specific T-cell therapy. According to a presentation given Sunday by AlloVir at the American Transplant Congress in San Diego, posoleucel was effective in treating in adult kidney transplant recipients who had BK virus infection (BKV). There are no effective treatment options currently for BKV. Of the 90,000 estimated kidney transplant recipients every year in the U.S., roughly 20% of them are infected with BKV.

The company said posoleucel caused greater BKV-specific T-cell activity than a placebo 24 weeks after therapy was administered. The company also said it plans to continue phase 3 enrollment for the therapy's trials and expects to meet with the Food and Drug Administration to design a study to look at posoleucel as a preventative for BKV infection in kidney transplant patients.

Now what

The positive trial puts AlloVir one step closer to being a commercial-stage company. Posoleucel is also being tested to fight adenovirus, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus-6, and JC virus, all of which can affect immunocompromised transplant patients. The company has two other therapies in its pipeline, ALVR106 and ALVR107, both of which are allogenic, off-the-shelf multivirus special T-cell therapies.

AlloVir reported it has $202.6 million in cash as of the first quarter and that it expects to spend $150 million to $170 million this year, so by next year, it will need more cash to continue operations.

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Jim Halley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.