Oruka Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ORKA) added ~20% in the premarket on Wednesday after the company posted interim data from a Phase 1 trial for its lead asset ORKA-001, noting that the experimental therapy outperformed risankizumab, an arthritis drug marketed by AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) as Skyrizi.
Citing data from the study for healthy volunteers, the Menlo Park, California-based biotech noted that ORKA-001 indicated a half-life of approximately 100 days, more than a threefold increase compared to risankizumab.
The injectable is designed to target plaque psoriasis, an autoimmune condition, where currently approved therapies require four to six times of annual dosing, and still only half of patients achieve full skin clearance after four months.
“ORKA-001’s approximately 100-day half-life exceeded our expectations and has the potential to enable multiple ‘upside’ scenarios for the program,” said Lawrence Klein, Oruka’s (NASDAQ:ORKA) CEO.
ORKA’s ongoing EVERLAST-A Phase 2a trial, designed to test whether ORKA-001 can outperform the standard of care with annual dosing, among other measures, is expected to generate initial data in H2 2026.
Concurrently. Oruka (NASDAQ:ORKA) announced a private placement to raise about $180M in gross proceeds through the sale of roughly 10.9M shares of its common stock at $15.00 per share and warrants to purchase approximately 1.1M shares at $14.999 apiece.