NephroGenex shares rocket after lead drug found safe for heart

(Reuters) - Shares of NephroGenex Inc shot up nearly nine-fold in premarket trading, a day after the drug developer said its lead drug was found to be safe in a cardiac safety study. The oral drug, pyridorin, is being evaluated in a late-stage study in patients with diabetic nephropathy - a chronic, degenerative kidney disease caused by diabetes, which is often accompanied by heart disease. Cardiac safety concerns have been seen with other therapies in development, the company said late on Tuesday. Pyridorin aims to work by inhibiting the underlying cause of the disease, which affects about 6 million Americans, thereby slowing its progression, NephroGenex said. Standard medicines used to treat diabetic nephropathy are also used to control blood pressure. This class of drugs addresses one of the factors that contribute to the disease, but fail to tackle its underlying cause. Without effective treatments, sufferers progress to end-stage renal disease, which necessitates dialysis or a transplant and could be fatal. Earlier this month, ChemoCentryx Inc's diabetic nephropathy drug was successful in a mid-stage study. NephroGenex, whose shares debuted on the Nasdaq in February, is also testing an intravenous formulation of pyridorin to treat specific types of acute kidney injury. Up to Tuesday's close, shares of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company had fallen more than 61 pct since their debut. (Reporting by Rosmi Shaji in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)