In premarket trading hours, the shares of Medical Nova Inc. (MNOV) have risen 54.26% to $5.80. Last trading session ended with the stock at $3.76, a decrease of -1.83%. Shares of MNOV ranged in price between $3.71 and $3.86.

In the past 100 days, MNOV has traded 0.37 million shares, which is lower than its daily average of 0.68 million shares. In the last five days, shares of MNOV have lost -12.15%, while in the last month, they have lost -10.69%. Positive results of a trial have sent MNOV stock soaring today.

What were the encouraging findings?

MediciNova is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing therapies for inflammation, fibrosis, and neurodegenerative diseases. The MNOV pipeline consists of 11 clinical trials involving two compounds, MN-166 (ibudilast) and MN-001 (tipelukast), with multiple mechanisms of action and robust safety profiles. MN-166 (ibudilast) is the lead program of MNOV and is now in Phase 3 trials for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM), and can be prepared for Phase 3 trials for progressive multiple sclerosis (MS).

MediciNova announced today that positive Phase 2 results from a study of MN-166 (ibudilast) in persons suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD) are published in Nature’s Translational Psychiatry.

• A clinical trial was conducted by MNOV in collaboration with Dr. Lara Ray, Professor, Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
• The Center for Study of Opioid Receptors and Drugs of Abuse funded MNOV’s that trial.
• The purpose of the study was to determine how 14 days of ibudilast treatment would affect mood, heavy drinking, and neural reward signals in individuals with AUD.
• This trial enrolled 52 patients with AUD.

Among the findings reported in the publication are:

• Ibudilast did not significantly influence negative mood.
• A study comparing ibudilast to a placebo found that 45% less heavy drinking occurred over time.
• In comparison to placebo, ibudilast reduced activation of the ventral striatum (VS) in response to alcohol cues.
• Drinking in the ibudilast group was predicted by the activation of the ventral striatum attenuated by the medication, such that individuals taking ibudilast had the fewest drinks per drinking day after the scan.

What does this indicate?

The MNOV medication Ibudilast reduced alcohol cravings when taking it instead of a placebo. MediciNova (MNOV) has reported findings supporting the use of ibudilast to treat alcohol dependence and suggest the drug may work by reducing the rewarding response to alcohol cues in the brain, thus reducing heavy drinking.