Spectral Diagnostics spikes on EUPHRATES trial expansion

Shares of Spectral Diagnostics (TSX:SDI) are up today after the company announced that the Data Safety Board had increased the sample size of its EUPHRATES trial from 360 to 650 patients.

“We are pleased with the positive outcome of the second interim analysis,” said CEO Dr. Paul Walker. “The enthusiasm and support from our clinical trial sites has been outstanding. Based on current enrolment rates and number of sites, we anticipate completion of the trial in the first half of 2016.”

Etobicoke’s Spectral Diagnostics focuses on treatments for Sepsis, otherwise known as blood poisoning. The company feels the effects of the disease, which affects about a million people each year in the United States alone, can be seriously improved with better, faster diagnostic testing.

Spectral’s EAA™ (Endotoxin Activity Assay) is the only FDA cleared, CE marked rapid diagnostic for endotoxemia. The treatment received clearance in 2003. The company belives the combination of EAA and Toraymyxin, a therapeutic hemoperfusion device that removes endotoxin from the bloodstream and is used in the EUPHRATES trial, could prove to be a more effective treatment.

At press time, shares of Spectral Diagnostics were up 18% to $0.36.

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