Sorrento Therapeutics skyrockets 244% after claiming a breakthrough on COVID-19 drug (SRNE)

Reuters

• Shares of Sorrento Therapeutics spiked as much as 244% on Friday after the company said an antibody it was developing showed “100% inhibition” of the COVID-19 virus in preclinical studies.
• The small biotechnology company said it aimed to create “an antibody cocktail that would act as a ‘protective shield'” against the coronavirus.
• Sorrento said the full results of from its experiments would be “submitted to a peer-reviewed publication shortly.”
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Sorrento Therapeutics skyrocketed as much as 244% on Friday after the company said an antibody it was developing showed “100% inhibition” of the COVID-19 virus in preclinical studies.

The small biotechnology company said it planned to “generate an antibody cocktail product that would act as a ‘protective shield’ against SARS-CoV-2,” the official name of the novel coronavirus.

Sorrento said it would ask regulators for “priority evaluation and accelerated review” of its antibody candidate. The company added that it hoped to receive government support and partner with a pharmaceutical company to scale up manufacturing of its candidate if clinical studies find it to be successful.

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Sorrento said the full results from its preclinical experiments would be “submitted to a peer-reviewed publication shortly.”

Sorrento’s market value surged from $549 million at Thursday’s close to roughly $1.9 billion at Friday’s intraday highs.

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