Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc.
ARCT
announced that it has selected ARCT-032 as a development candidate for Cystic Fibrosis (CF), which is a progressive hereditary disease.
ARCT-032, based on the company’s proprietary LUNAR technology, is designed to result in the efficient expression of a functional Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein in the lungs.
Shares of the company have surged 329.7% compared with the
industry
’s growth of 7.4%.
ARCT-032 will utilize Arcturus LUNAR lipid-mediated aerosolized platform to deliver CFTR mRNA to the lungs. Per the company, ARCT-032 has the potential to address the root cause of CF lung disease, which is caused by the defective or missing CFTR protein.
According to the company, preclinical studies of ARCT-032, which is based on the company’s LUNAR technology, have demonstrated that the inhaled therapy has the potential to successfully deliver CFTR mRNA to airway epithelial cells, which could result in the re-establishment of normal CFTR function in the lungs of CF patients.
There are several other companies,which have products either developed or in development for the treatment of CF.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
VRTX
has Kalydeco in its portfolio for CF. Another company,
AzurRx
AZRX
, is evaluating MS1819 in combination with porcine enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) in two clinical programs examining MS1819 in a phase IIb CF monotherapy and a phase II CF combination approach.
Zacks Rank & A Stock to Consider
Arcturus currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
A better-ranked stock in the healthcare sector includes
Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
ARPO
, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
Aerpio’s loss per share estimates have narrowed from 15 cents to 14 cents for 2020 and from 63 cents to 57 cents for 2021 over the past 60 days. Share price of the company has increased 58.8% year to date.
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