Shares of Apellis rise on clinical data for rare blood disease drug

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Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc. gained 5.1% in premarket trading on Friday after it shared details from a late-stage clinical trial evaluating its experimental drug pegcetacoplan against Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Soliris as a treatment for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. The study found that pegcetacoplan was better than Soliris in improving hemoglobin levels in adults with the rare blood disease. Soliris brought in $3.9 billion in revenue in 2019. Apellis said it plans to submit a new drug application for pegcetacoplan to the Food and Drug Administration in the second half of the year. Its stock is down 0.5% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 has declined 7.1%.