Celsion Corporation (NASDAQ: CLSN) shares gained sharply Friday after the company said interim data from an early trial of its ovarian cancer drug provide support for further clinical development.

The company traded recently at $3.19, up more than 15 percent.

Celsion also said the Food and Drug Administration has accepted the company's planned Phase 1 dose-escalation clinical trial of the drug, called GEN-1, expected to start in mid-2015.

Celsion said 16 patients in a safety and efficacy trial of the drug, in combination with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, showed no overlapping toxicities between the two treatments.

Clinical efficacy results will be presented in the second quarter of 2015, the company said.

Celsion said, however, that data was consistent with two earlier, single-agent studies of Gen-1, in which patients has a median survival rate of 18 months and 10 months, respectively.

Ovarian cancer is the eighth-most common form of cancer among women, with a quarter-million cases diagnosed annually worldwide.

The disease causes 5 percent of total deaths among women.

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