By CCN.com: Biopharmaceutical company ARCA biopharma (NASDAQ: ABIO) led the stock market yesterday with a mind-blowing 98.64% gain on the day.

The ABIO stock price rocketed following an announcement that the company had a critical research paper published in JACC: Heart Failure, part of the Journal of American College of Cardiology.

Why Is This Publication Important?

ARCA biopharma is currently working on treating cardiovascular diseases with genetically-targeted therapies. Their lead product candidate is GencaroTM (bucindolol hydrochloride), a beta blocker and mild vasodilator that could potentially treat atrial fibrillation in heart failure patients. Because ARCA is a pharma company, the success of ABIO stock depends on getting this product to market.

The paper, “GENETIC-AF: Bucindolol for the Maintenance of Sinus Rhythm in a Genotype-Defined Heart Failure Population,” outlines some of the results of the current phase two trials that ARCA researchers have been conducting.

Overall, those results were positive. Dr. Piccini, the lead author on the paper, notes,

“…the majority of patients in this trial demonstrated a more favorable response to genetically-targeted bucindolol compared to standard beta-blocker therapy. These data are very encouraging and merit further investigation in future Phase 3 trials.”

With encouraging results like that, it’s no surprise that the ABIO stock boomed as it did.

Will Phase 2 Trials Rescue Plunging ABIO Stock?

Driven by the publication announcement, the ABIO stock price grew from $5.21 to $10.28 – in just one trading day. Even with yesterday’s doubling, though, the company has certainly seen better days. In the past five years, the ABIO stock price has fallen over 90 percent. Even this month, the price was flatlining at around $6 until the announcement.

But, ABIO’s bitter past doesn’t necessarily mean that it has a bleak future. Even getting only one product through clinical trials and into the market would bring a significant payday to everyone involved, including investors.

The performance of pharma stocks is mainly dependent on the results of their trials. As an investor, timing your investments around these announcements could prove lucrative. Just last week, another pharma company, Tiziana Life Sciences, surged 50 percent in a single day.

Now that ARCA’s bucindolol product has a successful phase two trial under its belt, ABIO stock is worth keeping an eye on. Completion of the promising phase three trials could bring a similar ROI as phase two did.