Shares of 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: SXTP) surged by over 135 per cent during trading hours on Tuesday after the company revealed a patent licensing agreement with the Yale schools of medicine and public health.
Together, they are developing a drug used to treat babesiosis — a potentially fatal condition caused by the bite of black-legged deer ticks. These insects also cause the more well-known Lyme disease, which is less deadly.
The news follows the company and prestigious schools agreeing to collaborate on a clinical trial to assess the efficacy of tafenoquine, the drug in discussion, last summer. Enrollment is currently ongoing. Interim results from this assessment on 25 to 35 hospitalized patients is expected to be released in September.
“Relapsing babesiosis occurs in highly immunocompromised patients, is very difficult to treat, and has an estimated mortality rate of 20 per cent,” Yale University scientist, Peter James Krause, explained in a release from 60 Degrees Pharma. “There is a critical need to develop new antimicrobials for use in these patients.”
In some cases this disease can appear to have disappeared when it is actually in a dormant state before inevitably rearing its ugly head again, as mentioned by Krause. The CEO of 60 Degrees Pharma, Geoff Dow, says that the medicine can also potentially serve as the first-ever prophylaxis [drug used to protect oneself] against the disease.
Malaria is the company’s main focus
This same drug is the flagship product of 60 Degrees Pharma, and is used as a prophylaxis for protection against the mosquito-transmitted disease malaria. It received approval from the FDA in 2018. The oral tablets are sold under the name ARAKODA in the U.S. and as “KODATEF” in Australia.
Sales of this product drove up company revenue by 140 per cent year-over-year during fiscal 2024.
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland originally discovered it decades ago and used the pills to prevent front-line soldiers from getting sick. In 2014, 60 Degrees Pharma secured a research and development agreement for the drug. The company’s work with tafenoquine has received support from the U.S. Department of Defense and private investors.
The disease prevention specialist was founded in 2010 in Washington D.C.
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