Sarepta’s shares plunge on muscle disorder drug data

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc said patients trialing its muscle wasting disorder drug showed an accelerated decline in walking ability after nearly three years of use, sending the company’s shares down as much as 28 percent. The drug, eteplirsen, is designed to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a degenerative disorder that hampers muscle movement and affects one in 3,600 newborn boys. “The reason for the sell-off in the stock is related to the acceleration in the rate of decline over the last six months, which can be taken as waning in eteplirsen efficacy,” Roth Capital Partners analyst Debjit Chattopadhyay wrote in a note.