Intellia rises after US FDA lifts hold on heart disease gene therapy trial

Shares of gene therapy developer Intellia Therapeutics NTLA.O rise 3.1% to $14.21

Co says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has removed a clinical hold on the late-stage trial of its experimental gene therapy for a heart disease

Last year, the company said the FDA paused its two main late-stage trials for the gene-editing treatment, nexiguran ziclumeran, after a patient died from severe liver complications

In January, the FDA removed its clinical hold on one of the trials, MAGNITUDE-2, after the company took mitigation measures such as enhanced monitoring of liver laboratory tests and the exclusion of patients with certain liver abnormalities

"Beyond these changes, it's worth saying that getting off this hold was quite quick, and probably comes with minimal disruption to the clinical timeline," Evercore ISI says

The therapy is being tested in patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), a serious and worsening heart disease in which an abnormal protein builds up in the heart, making it stiff and less able to pump blood properly

Including session's moves, NTLA rose 56.4% YTD