Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX: CUV) shares are having a strong finish to the week.
In morning trade, the ASX 300 healthcare stock is up a sizeable 12% to $17.00.
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Why is this ASX 300 healthcare stock rocketing?
Investors have been buying Clinuvel's shares this morning after it announced the final set of results from its CUV151 study. It is evaluating the DNA-repair capacity of afamelanotide on skin of healthy volunteers exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
This study was undertaken at Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester. It is a centre globally acknowledged for its expertise in assessing the effects of UV-induced skin damage.
The results from CUV151 were presented overnight at the British Association of Dermatologists meeting in Manchester.
According to the release, the analysis of biopsies from seven patients with fair skin types taken prior to, and six days after afamelanotide treatment, illustrated that without afamelanotide, UV-irradiation resulted in 625 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in comparison to non-irradiated skin.
However, with afamelanotide, the DEGs between irradiated versus non-irradiated skin reduced to 183. This is a factor 3.4 less DEGs (p<0.05).
Management notes that the genes evaluated are found to be crucial in the regulation of DNA repair and inflammatory reactions following solar and UV exposure.
What does this mean for CUV151?
The release highlights that for the overall XP-DNA Repair Program, the RNA sequencing results indicate that critical genes expressed after UV-damage can be positively affected with afamelanotide treatment.
For the general population, and specifically individuals with a fair skin type who easily burn in the sun, the results indicate that afamelanotide can reduce oxidative damage and inflammatory reactions after sun exposure and skin damage.
The ASX 300 healthcare stock's chief scientific officer, Dr Dennis Wright, was pleased with the results. He said:
The results from RNA sequencing complement the earlier results we saw from immunohistochemistry, in that afamelanotide consistently seems to assist repair of UV-damaged DNA in the skin.
Dr Wright revealed that the company plans to confirm these results in a final study. He said:
The significance of these results evaluating the use of afamelanotide in reducing oxidative and inflammatory damage caused by UV is high for those at high risk of solar damage, sunburn and skin cancers, hence we will repeat and confirm these results in a final study.
Despite today's strong gain, the Clinuvel share price remains down approximately 6% since this time last year.
