Viridian Therapeutics’ active thyroid eye disease drug met goals in its late-stage study
Viridian Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VRDN) stock is up 11.1% to trade at $15.75 today, and earlier traded as high as $16.35, after the biotech company’s eye disorder treatment met the main goal of a late-stage study. VRDN is on track for its best single-session gain of 2024.
Despite today’s breakout, the shares are still 28% lower year to date, and momentum has fallen short of its 200-day moving average. A short squeeze could keep the wind at the equity’s back though; short interest fell 7.3% in the two most recent reporting periods, yet the 8 million shares sold short still account for 12.9% of VRDN’s total available float. At the stock’s average pace of trading, it would take shorts nearly eight trading days to buy back their bearish bets.
Put traders have been crowding Viridian as well. Data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows 6,000 puts were bought to open in the last 10 days, compared to just 460 calls.