Here's Why Anavex Life Sciences Jumped Higher Today

Shares of Anavex Life Sciences (NASDAQ: AVXL) are up 5.8% at 2:06 p.m. EDT, having been up as much as 28.8%. Investors are excited about the company's drug, ANAVEX2-73, having passed a phase 2 clinical trial in patients with Parkinson's disease dementia.

The study used the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) computerized assessment system, which is a series of tests used to measure cognition in patients with dementia and other diseases that affect a patient's ability to think. The effect on CDR was "clinically meaningful," according to the company. The study compared two doses of ANAVEX2-73 to placebo, and the company said the results were "dose-dependent," meaning patients responded better to the higher dose than the lower dose.

Unfortunately, "clinically meaningful" and "dose-dependent" were all the information that investors got about the positive study. Anavex didn't release any data on how much better patients taking ANAVEX2-73 did on the CDR than the patients taking placebo. As companies are apt to do, Anavex is saving the data release for a medical conference.

Source Fool.com