Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc (IDRA)

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$IDRA Investors See Another $ISIS
•By Catherine Holahan (@cholahan) Editor |
•February 21st, 2014

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Investors piled into a newly public bio-tech company today in hopes that its “gene silencing” treatments perform like the drugs of another pharmaceutical firm topping the tape.

Idera Pharmaceuticals, which went public earlier this month with the ticker $IDRA, rose more than 6% today on the back of positive news from an unrelated company, Isis Pharmaceuticals.$ISIS jumped more than 18% after it announced positive results for a drug intended to treat kids with spinal muscular atrophy, a fatal genetic condition. The company said before the open that its multi-dose drug improved muscle function in children suffering from SMA. The drug will enter a phase 3 study later this year.

Investors see similarities in Idera’s work and Isis’ promising drug, an anti-sense oligonucleotide made from DNA-like chemicals that helps stop bad genes from sending messages that cause the body to overproduce proteins, like the one behind the incurable degenerative Huntington’s disease. Writers with DR in front of their names explain it here.

Idera’s is focused on treating autoimmune diseases and genetic lymphomas. But, like Isis, it is developing anti-sense oligonucleotide treatments to combat its target diseases.

Idera’s main drug candidate, IMO-8400, mitigates the production of proteins that spread b-cell lymphomas. As with Huntington’s disease and SMA, disadvantageous genetic mutations cause the protein overproduction. Less