Ahead of the Bell: Halozyme Therapeutics soars

Halozyme Therapeutics shares jumped more than 13 percent in premarket trading Thursday after the drug developer said regulators have lifted a hold on a clinical study of its possible pancreatic cancer treatment.

The San Diego company said the Food and Drug Administration's decision means the mid-stage study of the drug labeled PEGPH20 can resume with some modifications.

The company's shares also jumped last month when Halozyme said it had asked the FDA to end the hold after a data monitoring committee voiced its support for the study's resumption.

The research focuses on patients with advanced pancreatic cancer that has spread. The study measures progression-free survival in patients who took the Halozyme drug in combination with some chemotherapies as an initial treatment for the disease. It compares those patients to another group that just took the chemotherapies.

Progression-free survival measures the time from the start of treatment until a patient's cancer begins advancing again or the patient dies.

Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. had said in April that it temporarily halted the study over concerns that patients taking the drug may be more likely to suffer a blocked blood vessel. Researchers will study the rate at which that happens when the research resumes.

Shares of Halozyme gained $1.12, or almost 14 percent, to $9.20 in premarket trading about an hour and a half before the opening bell. Its stock price had topped $18 to set an all-time high earlier this year, but shares plunged in April after Halozyme announced the study halt.