The shares of Trevena Inc (NASDAQ:TRVN) are up by over 70% after the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company revealed positive phase 2b study results for its postoperative pain medication last night. According to the announcement, its phase 2b trial of TRV130, which is used for treating severe acute postoperative pain after abdominoplasty surgery, had positive results, meeting its primary endpoint of significant pain reduction in comparison with the placebo. On top of the positive results, TRV130 ended up offering better results than morphine in some pre-specified second measures, including lower vomiting, nausea, and hypoventilation events. Neil Singla, Chief Scientific Officer at Lotus Clinical Research and lead investigator in the study, said, “The data from this trial showed that TRV130, when given on-demand, matched morphine efficacy for pain relief with a markedly improved safety and tolerability profile.” The company believes that the medication can offer enhanced pain relief, while reducing opioid-related adverse events.
Trevena Inc (NASDAQ:TRVN) is planning to initiate the phase 3 development of TRV130 in early 2016. The clinical-stage company reported data for a phase 2a/b trial of TRV130 involving patients undergoing bunionectomy surgery in late 2014, indicating superior efficacy against morphine. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company announced its second quarter 2015 financial results on August 11, reporting a net loss per share of $0.28 against the market expectations of a loss per share of $0.37. Trevena Inc (NASDAQ:TRVN) didn’t release revenue figures for the quarter.
The shares of Trevena Inc (NASDAQ:TRVN) have appreciated by 65.49% year-to-date. Despite the appreciation in its share price, the hedge funds in our database were bearish on the company, cutting their aggregate holdings by 47.30% to $26.32 million during the second quarter. Nonetheless, the number of hedge funds with long positions in Trevena Inc (NASDAQ:TRVN) inched up to 12, an improvement of two from the previous quarter. The hedge funds in our database held 10.70% of the outstanding shares of the biopharmaceutical company.
At Insider Monkey, we track hedge funds’ moves in order to identify actionable patterns and profit from them. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks historically delivered a monthly alpha of six basis points, though these stocks underperformed the S&P 500 Total Return Index by an average of seven basis points per month between 1999 and 2012. On the other hand, the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500 Index by an average of 95 basis points per month (read the details here). Since the official launch of our small-cap strategy in August 2012, it has performed just as predicted, returning 118% and beating the market by more than 60 percentage points. We believe the data is clear: investors will be better off by focusing on small-cap stocks utilizing hedge fund expertise rather than large-cap stocks.
