The company identified a possible cause of an issue with its eye disorder treatment
The shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:APLS) are soaring, after the biopharmaceutical concern identified the potential cause of an issue with its eye disorder treatment, Syfovre, which treats geographic atrophy. The company found abnormalities in the needles used to withdraw the drug from a vial, but noted there haven't been any new cases of inflamation. Following the news, UBS raised its price target to $64 from $60.
At last glance, APLS was up 31.6% at $40.49. The stock is a long way from recovering from its bear gap in mid-July, when inflammation issues in connection to its drug first emerged. Year-to-date, the equity is down 21.5%.
In the options pits today, 11,000 calls and 3,892 puts have crossed the tape so far, which is double the intraday average amount. The September 45 call is the most popular, with new positions opening there.
It's also worth noting that short interest represents 9.5% of the stock's available float. It would take nearly three days for shorts to buy back their bearish bets, at APLS' average pace of trading.