Geron Corp said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted a partial clinical hold on a study testing its blood cancer drug, imetelstat, sending its shares soaring about 34 percent in premarket trading.
_0">Patient enrollments in the trial, sponsored by Mayo Clinic, were halted in March over concerns of liver damage.
It came a week after the regulator ordered Geron to cease company-sponsored trials of the drug evaluating its use in thrombocythemia and multiple myeloma, two forms of blood cancer, over similar concerns.
Imetelstat, Geron's only drug, was touted as the company's savior after curing 22 percent of myelofibrosis patients in a trial last year. (Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)