Shares of gene therapy biotech Spark Therapeutics Inc. tumbled more than 40% in early trade Monday, after it reported data from trials of a hemophilia treatment that analysts said look less competitive than a rival product from BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. The company presented early data from a trial of its SPK-8011 in hemophilia A involving five patients. “Although the enrollment size is small so far (n=5), early signs raise more caution than encouragement, on balance, and lead us to question whether there will be adequate dose-response for patients to reliably achieve normal Factor VIII expression levels,” Leerink analysts wrote in an early note. Spark also unveiled longer-term data from a treatment for hemophilia B, that it is working on with Pfizer Inc. Shares are down 14.7% for 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%. BioMarin shares rose 8.4%.
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