Annovis Bio Inc. (ANVS) had the kind of Monday that makes biotechs dream. The stock rocketed 55.91% to $3.65, riding a wave of volume that hit 12.29 million shares compared to its typical 615,000. The catalyst? Fresh Phase 3 data showing its lead drug candidate actually works.
The company, which focuses on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, released new data demonstrating how buntanetap addresses cognitive decline in Parkinson's patients. And here's where it gets interesting: the drug appears especially effective in patients with amyloid co-pathology, a complicating factor that often accelerates cognitive deterioration.
In the Phase 3 study of early Parkinson's disease, buntanetap halted cognitive decline across the entire patient population. The most significant improvements appeared in patients with mild dementia, which represents a meaningful clinical outcome for a population desperately needing better treatment options.
About 25% of patients in the trial showed amyloid co-pathology, and this group experienced more pronounced cognitive decline during the study period. Buntanetap didn't just slow that decline—it counteracted and reversed it.
This gets to the heart of Annovis's scientific thesis, one the company has been pushing for years: neurodegenerative diseases don't happen in isolation. Multiple neurotoxic proteins—the ones implicated in both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's—work together to drive cognitive and functional decline. If you only target one protein, you're missing the bigger picture.
The data backs this up. Parkinson's patients with amyloid co-pathology showed significant cognitive improvement on buntanetap treatment. Even better, the company measured reductions in pTau217, total tau, and brain-derived tau—biomarkers that are well-established in Alzheimer's disease and serve as objective evidence of neurodegeneration.
For a small-cap biotech, getting Phase 3 data that shows your drug actually halts disease progression is a big deal. The biomarker data adds another layer of credibility, suggesting the improvements aren't just statistical noise but reflect real biological changes in the brain.