Actelion up after selexipag meets PAH endpoint

Actelion Ltd. (SIX:ATLN) gained CHF13.55 (15%) to CHF104.50 on Monday after reporting that twice-daily oral selexipag ( ACT-293987) met the primary endpoint of reducing the risk of a morbidity or mortality event compared to placebo in the 1,156-patient Phase III GRIPHON trial to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (p<0.001). Actelion said it plans to submit regulatory applications in the U.S. and EU for the long-acting prostacyclin (IP) receptor ( PGI2; PTGIR) agonist in six to eight months. Actelion has rights to selexipag from Nippon Shinyaku Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4516) outside of Japan, where the companies share rights.

Selexipag will likely compete with oral prostacyclin analogs, including oral Orenitram treprostinil from United Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ:UTHR). The company, which markets an inhaled formulation as Tyvaso, was up $0.82 to $90.45 on Monday. ...