Investors were surely discovering drug discovery company AbCellera Biologics (ABCL 6.19%) as the trading week kicked off on Monday. On encouraging news in an important North American jurisdiction, those folks bid the biotech's stock up by almost 6% on the day. That was a far higher jump than the 0.4% increase of the benchmark S&P 500 index.

Moving forward with dermatitis treatment

Friday afternoon, AbCellera announced that it had received a no objection letter (NOL) from Health Canada, that country's healthcare regulatory agency, regarding one of its early-stage investigational drugs. The NOL covers the company's clinical trial application (CTA) for ABCL575, a treatment that targets moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (a chronic skin condition also known as atopic eczema).

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Receipt of a NOL is an important step in advancing a clinical program for companies like AbCellera, hence the positive market reaction to the news.

AbCellera said in its press release revealing the NOL that it anticipates launching a phase 1 clinical study of ABCL575 in the third calendar quarter of this year. It will be administered by injection to trial participants.

One of very many

AbCellera is a busy company, boasting over 20 investigational programs that sprawl across a number of indications. To some degree, this latest news item is something of a drop in the bucket, particularly since AbCellera's native Canadian market is significantly smaller than that of the U.S.

Regardless, any good news coming from a regulator is a positive for a biotech, so investors were right to cheer Health Canada's move.