Here's a classic biotech puzzle: a company releases promising clinical trial data, and the stock goes down. That's what happened Tuesday with Protara Therapeutics (TARA), which saw its shares drop in premarket trading after announcing updated interim results for its experimental bladder cancer drug.

The drug in question is TARA-002, a treatment for high-risk Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer. The data came from the ADVANCED-2 trial, and honestly, the numbers look pretty good.

Let's break it down. In the BCG-Unresponsive cohort (these are patients who didn't respond to the standard treatment), the interim analysis of 35 evaluable participants showed a 68.2% complete response rate at six months. That's the kind of number that gets biotech investors excited. Even better: there were no Grade 3 or greater treatment-related adverse events reported. In biotech-speak, that means the drug appears to be working without making patients terribly sick, which is kind of the whole point of medicine.

The complete response rate at any time was 65.7% for this group. Among those who responded, the estimated probability of maintaining that complete response for six months was 71.1%. Here's where it gets really interesting: 100% maintained their complete response from nine to 12 months. And for patients who needed re-induction (basically, another round of treatment), 61.5% converted to a complete response at six months.

There's another group in the study too—the BCG-naïve cohort, meaning patients who haven't had the standard treatment yet. For these 27 patients, the complete response rate was 72.4% at any time, 66.7% at six months, and 57.9% at 12 months. The durability looked solid here too, with 100% of responders maintaining their complete response from nine to 12 months.

Protara expects to complete enrollment of this cohort in the second half of 2026, which suggests they're making steady progress with the drug's development. The results overall highlight TARA-002's potential as a significant treatment option, particularly given what appears to be a favorable safety profile.

So why did the stock drop? Sometimes the market is just weird. But let's look at the technical picture.

Currently, TARA is trading 12.65% below its 20-day simple moving average, which suggests a bearish short-term trend. Over the past year, shares have bounced between $7.82 and $2.77, and they're currently positioned closer to the high end of that range. The RSI sits at 50.00, which is neutral territory—neither overbought nor oversold. MACD data isn't available for analysis, which means there's no clear momentum signal in either direction right now.

The combination of neutral RSI and no MACD data suggests mixed momentum. Traders watching the stock might want to keep an eye on key resistance at $7.50 and key support at $6.00.

Here's where it gets interesting: despite the stock's movement, analysts are pretty bullish on Protara. The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price target of $27.69. That's way above where it's trading now. Recent analyst moves include HC Wainwright & Co. maintaining a Buy rating with a $23 target in February, Piper Sandler initiating coverage with an Overweight rating and $24 target in January, and HC Wainwright maintaining that same $23 target back in December.

Protara Therapeutics shares were down 7.94% at $6.84 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to market data.

So what do we have here? A biotech company with promising clinical data for a drug that appears to work well and doesn't make patients terribly sick. Analysts think the stock could be worth four times what it's trading at today. But the stock is down anyway. Welcome to biotech investing, where sometimes good news gets a bad reaction, and you just have to wait for the market to catch up to the science.