Science in the Triangle

After months of wrangling with an influential investor — the argument included calls for the resignation of the chief executive — things are looking up again at Icagen, a Durham company working on painkillers and asthma and epilepsy treatments.

At least for the moment they are.

Icagen’s stock rallied Monday after the Food and Drug Administration gave Icagen the green light to start testing its epilespy drug in photosensistive patients. Until then, the FDA had had a partial clinical hold on the drug.

On Tuesday, the company reported it had narrowed its second quarter loss 36 percent to $2.4 million, or 5 cents per share, compared to a year ago. That beat analysts’ estimates of 8 cents per share.

Icagen, which said it laid off 10 percent of its staff of about 70 last month, has been on a roller coaster ride since it had to stop testing an experimental sickle cell treatment in 2007 after seven years of work. In the summer of 2007, Icagen got a second chance in form of a collaboration with drugmaker Pfizer that could be worth up to $1 billion. But by the beginning of 2009, Icagen’s stock was trading at about 50 cents per share and a large investor was getting restless.

Shares started trading at 76 cents Tuesday, having nearly doubled their value in two days.