Instead of taking his listeners through a leisurely survey of the outlook for
Sarepta Therapeutics,
CEO Doug Ingram dove into a Monday talk for investors with a review of what went wrong in Sarepta’s trial of its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The study’s failure to show a statistically significant strength improvement in children who were treated caused Sarepta stock (ticker: SRPT) to drop by half on Friday.
“I was not merely disappointed.” Ingram told his audience at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. “I was, to be frank, utterly gobsmacked.” Analysis soon convinced Ingram and his colleagues that the study’s failure to prove a benefit resulted from bad luck, not the treatment’s failure.