MoonLake jumps as AbbVie's weak skin drug data eases competition fears

** Shares of MoonLake Immunotherapeutics MLTX.O rise 21.7% to $12.96

** Rally follows AbbVie's ABBV.N late-stage trial data for its skin disease drug lutikizumab, which showed a modest 8% placebo-adjusted improvement in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS)

** MoonLake is developing sonelokimab, a dual IL-17A/F inhibitor targeting the same chronic inflammatory skin condition

** Wedbush analyst Yun Zhong says the "underwhelming" AbbVie data supports sonelokimab as a "better treatment approach" and notes the rally reflects the "relief of an overhang of potential competition"

** Cantor analysts say "for MLTX, this is obviously a near-term positive given the potential reduced competitive threat" from AbbVie's drug

** Including session's moves, MLTX down 1.6% YTD