Contineum tumbles as Bristol's partial trial win raises dose doubts

** Shares of Contineum Therapeutics CTNM.O fall 25.4% to $9.98 premarket

** Bristol Myers' admilparant meets the main goal of a late-stage trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at the 60 mg dose, but the 120 mg dose did not reach statistical significance

** If approved, admilparant would become the first in a class of medicines called LPA1 inhibitors to treat IPF

** Contineum is testing once-daily PIPE-791, which targets the same LPA1 pathway as twice-daily admilparant, in patients with IPF, a serious lung-scarring disease

** The higher-dose miss raises "questions on dose-response", JonesTrading analyst Debanjana Chatterjee says

** Bristol's miss at higher dose is "an odd nuance," and "a lingering debate will be whether a more potent compound can/cannot push efficacy further," Stifel's analyst Paul Matteis says

** Matteis views the LPA1 thesis as "more validated" after the BMY readout but says skeptics "may still wonder how derisked LPA1R still actually is"

** Chatterjee says the lack of numerical details "could potentially cap upside as investors assume a less competitive effect size"

** As of last close, CTNM up 17% YTD