KINTOR Pharmaceutical Ltd. shares soared in Hong Kong trading after the company said a new drug proved effective in treating COVID-19 patients.

Shares of the Chinese drug developer more than doubled to HK$28.85 (US$3.52) after initially jumping 229% closer to the open yesterday, the biggest jump since the company was listed in Hong Kong in 2020.

Kintor said before the start of trading that a clinical trial for its proxalutamide drug candidate had effectively reduced the risk of hospitalization and death in outpatients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19, including patients with high-risk factors such as older age.

The results came from a multi-national clinical trial with over 700 subjects across the world, mostly from the United States, recruited during April to December, 2021, who were given either proxalutamide or a placebo, the company said in a filing.

Among trial subjects with more than seven days of treatment, six in the placebo group were hospitalized, including one death, versus no death or hospitalization in the group taking proxalutamide, according to the filing, without providing detailed data.

For all subjects who took at least one day of treatment, Proxalutamide reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50%. For subjects with more than one day of treatment, the risk was reduced by 71%, Kintor said.

The drug also provided some relief to COVID-related symptoms such as fever, shortness of breath and coughing, it said.

It also said there were no serious adverse reactions among patients in the Phase III study.

In December, Kintor said its proxalutamide treatment for patients with mild to moderate COVID symptoms failed to meet certain standards, triggering a plunge in shares.

Kintor chairman Tong Youzhi said yesterday a separate trial of the treatment for use in severe cases is facing some challenges, as the number of such cases remain low in China, and the trial in Ukraine has been affected by the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Kintor is arranging sites in countries including southeastern Asia nations to push forward the trial, he said. (SD-Agencies)