We are investigating AnaptysBio, Inc. (ANAB) (“AnaptysBio” or the “Company”) for potential violations of the federal securities laws.
On March 26, 2018, AnaptysBio announced data from an interim analysis of a Phase 2a trial for etokimab in adult patients with peanut allergies. Although the Company reported improvement among patients who received a single dose of etokimab compared to patients dosed with a placebo, later that day, an analyst from RBC Capital Markets issued a report that questioned the veracity of that data. On this news, AnaptysBio’s stock price fell $6.31 per share, or 5.54%, to close at $107.52 per share on March 27, 2018. On August 27, 2018, AnaptysBio announced that it had deprioritized further clinical development of etokimab as a treatment for peanut allergy, but continued to tout the efficacy of etokimab in the treatment of atopic dermatitis, touting the purported “timeline and robustness” of a single dose of etokimab and describing the drug’s treatment of patients in its Phase 2a clinical trial in this indication as a “truly remarkable result” with “widespread efficacy.” However, on June 21, 2019, an analyst from Credit Suisse issued a report questioning the veracity of the Company’s Phase 2a atopic dermatitis data, concluding that due to the study’s small sample size and lack of critical details provided by the Company, “we must consider the possibility that the presence of rescue medications could have influenced the trial’s response rates” and “we are now less certain about etokimab’s efficacy profile.” Accordingly, Credit Suisse downgraded AnaptysBio stock to neutral from outperform and slashed its price target to $79 from $137. On this news, AnaptysBio’s stock price fell $7.78 per share, or 11.61%, to close at $59.24 per share on June 21, 2019. Finally, on November 8, 2019, AnaptysBio announced “very disappoint[ing]” data from its ATLAS trial, a Phase 2b multi-dose study which evaluated the efficacy of etokimab in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. Specifically, AnaptysBio revealed that each of the etokimab dosing arms “failed to meet the primary endpoint of the trial” and revealed that, as a result of this data, it had postponed the initiation of its Phase 2b etokimab clinical trial in asthma. On this news, AnaptysBio’s stock price fell $25.98 per share, or 71.85%, to close at $10.18 per share on November 8, 2019.