Shares of Gossamer Bio Inc. plunged 64.5% in premarket trading on Tuesday after Wall Street analysts questioned the performance of the company’s experimental hypertension drug in a Phase 2 clinical trial. Though Gossamer said the drug, seralutinib, met the primary endpoint in a Phase 2 clinical trial, SVB Securities analyst Joseph Schwartz told investors that the therapy didn’t outperform Merck & Co. Inc.’s sotatercept. “We expect the street to be disappointed in these topline results given both endpoints fell below the [Phase 2] placebo-adjusted data from sotatercept,” he wrote in a note. “We note that the topline data also fell below our base case expectation for seralutinib vs. placebo to show a 20% to 30%” reduction in pulmonary vascular resistance. Gossamer’s stock is down 17.8% this year, while the S&P 500 has declined 16.1%.
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