NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Anavex Life Sciences (AVXL) - Get Reportstock is jumping by 48% to $4.80 on heavy trading volume on Wednesday morning, after the company announced today that it was preparing regulatory filings for its Alzheimer's treatment.

Based in New York City, Anavex is a bio-pharmaceutical company that develops drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease and central nervous system diseases.

Anavex is moving forward with developing its Alzheimer's treatment based on guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA guidance confirms the company's strategy to advance its treatment in a larger double-blinded, placebo-controlled Phase 2/3 trial, Anavex said in a statement.

"Working with a highly vulnerable patient population, the Company is proceeding in a rational, step-wise process," said Kristina Capiak, Anavex's vice president of regulatory affairs, in a statement. "Armed with the necessary data from the Phase 2a study to optimally design future trials, we look forward to expanding our development program."

So far today, 8.84 million shares of Anavex have traded, versus its 30-day average of 3.39 million shares.

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