Irish drug firm's shares jump on testing result

Amryt develops so-called orphan drugs, or treatments for extremely rare diseases or conditions with a lack of mainstream available treatments. File image

Shares in Irish drug development company Amryt Pharma surged by as much as 51% on the back of it reporting positive late-stage trial results for its potential treatment for rare skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).

Amryt – which recently scrapped its Dublin share listing in favour of the Nasdaq – develops so-called orphan drugs, or treatments for extremely rare diseases or conditions with a lack of mainstream available treatments.

Amryt’s chief executive Dr Joe Wiley said the results mark a “significant milestone” for the company and that, if approved, Amryt will “leverage our existing global infrastructure” to commercialise the drug, which is called Filsuvez.

The EB treatment market is forecast to be worth in the region of €1bn.

The global incidence of EB is estimated to be approximately 1 in 20,000, which implies that there are as many as 30,000 affected individuals in the US and over 500,000 worldwide.