Polyrizon Ltd. (PLRZ) shares rocketed higher Thursday, closing up 96.47% at $13.92 as investors piled in following promising new drug delivery data. Volume surged to 18.56 million shares, roughly seven times the typical 2.62 million daily average.
The excitement stems from preclinical results released Wednesday showing that Polyrizon's proprietary naloxone hydrogel formulation significantly outperforms an existing marketed intranasal naloxone spray in a critical measure: how well it sticks to nasal tissue.
Here's why that matters. When you're dealing with emergency opioid overdose treatment, every second counts. The longer a drug stays in contact with nasal tissue, the better chance it has of being absorbed into the bloodstream where it can do its job. If the formulation just runs down the back of your throat or gets washed away too quickly, you've got a problem.
Researchers tested Polyrizon's hydrogel against a commercial product using an established ex-vivo rabbit nasal mucosa model. They applied each formulation to mucosal tissue, then washed it with Simulated Nasal Electrolyte Solution over 30 minutes to mimic what happens in real nasal passages.
The results were clear. By measuring residual fluorescence markers, the team found that Polyrizon's hydrogel maintained substantially higher levels compared to the commercial spray, indicating notably stronger and more durable retention on the tissue.
The company's Trap and Target hydrogel platform showed significantly higher mucoadhesion levels, which could translate to prolonged contact at the nasal deposition site and potentially enhanced bioavailability. For emergency treatments like opioid overdose reversal, improved mucoadhesion is a critical factor because that enhanced residence time can support more reliable absorption and potentially faster onset of action.
"We believe that these outcomes further validate the potential of our T&T hydrogel platform and highlight its unique advantages in intranasal drug delivery," said Tomer Izraeli, CEO of Polyrizon. "The ability to significantly outperform an existing marketed product in mucoadhesion is an important milestone as we continue advancing our Naloxone program."
The market clearly liked what it heard, sending shares to their highest levels in recent memory on massive volume.
