What happened

Shares of Scholar Rock Holding (SRRK 20.13%) had jumped more than 25.8% as of 2:32 p.m. ET on Monday after it revealed in a financial filing that one of its directors, a venture capitalist named Amir Nashat, bought for more than 5.87 million dollars of company stock on June 22. Nashat also purchased 299,498 of its warrants, which are exercisable at a price of $7.35 until the end of 2025.

So what

The investor is a senior executive at venture capital group Polaris Partners, which invests in biotech companies like Scholar Rock.

Additionally, the shares and warrants are both held by the venture capital firm rather than by Nashat directly, although he independently owns a small number of shares. That means there’s a good chance that biotech industry experts at Polaris Partners believe that Scholar Rock, which is one of their portfolio companies, is going to do something that will push its stock price higher.

Now what

Scholar Rock is currently conducting a phase 3 clinical trial to determine if its candidate called apitegromab is safe and effective in treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). For a major investor to double down, management is likely to see something quite favorable in the interim results.

But Scholar Rock has remained silent so far, and the trial will not take place until June 2024 at the earliest. Keep an eye out for any posts on how things are going, as they likely bode very well for the drug’s eventual approval.