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Synergy Pharmaceuticals Surges as Investors Await Data
By Sonali Basak  Apr 24, 2014 1:55 PM ET  - Comments  Email  Print

* Price chart for SYNERGY PHARMACEUTICALS INC. Click flags for important stories.
SGYP:US4.920.51 11.57%
Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. (SGYP), a developer of drugs for gastrointestinal disorders, increased the most in a year on investor optimism that its experimental treatment for irritable bowel syndrome may have helped patients in a study.

Synergy surged 13 percent to $5 at 1:36 p.m. New York time, after earlier climbing to $5.14 in the biggest intraday jump since April 9, 2013. The shares of the New York-based company were little changed in the 12 months through yesterday.

Data from a mid-stage trial of the drug known as plecanatide may be released by the end of this month, according to Irina Rivkind, an analyst with Cantor Fitzgerald LP in New York. The medicine, if approved, is expected to compete with Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Linzess that is “projected to be a blockbuster drug,” Rivkind said in an e-mail. Both medicines help irritable bowel syndrome patients with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation.

“Plecanatide is the key asset for Synergy,” Rivkind said. Depending on the results “we think Synergy could be acquired by a larger company,” she said.

The company didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on the share movement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sonali Basak in New York at sbasak7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Bruce Rule, Andrew Pollack