Shares of EntreMed, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENMD) jumped 28 percent from Wednesday’s closing price early Thursday, after the company announced less-than positive second quarter financial results. EntreMed reported a second quarter net loss of $4.9 million, or 62 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $3.1 million, or 46 cents per share for the same period a year ago.

For the first six months of 2010 EntreMed reported a net loss of $7.1 million, or 95 cents per share as compared to a net loss of $6.6 million, or 98 cents per share in the same period a year ago. As of June 30, 2010, EntreMed had cash and short-term investments of approximately $8 million.

Additionally, EntreMed announced a 1-for-11 reverse stock split on June 30, 2010, to better enable the company to maintain its listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. As a result of the reverse split, the number of shares of outstanding common stock will be approximately 9.5 million, excluding stock options and unexercised warrants and subject to adjustment for fractional shares.

“During the second quarter, we achieved a critical milestone with the initiation of a multi-center Phase 2 study for ENMD-2076 in ovarian cancer patients,” EntreMed’s Executive Chairman Michael Tarnow said in a statement.

Last month, EntreMed announced the publication of preclinical data for its Phase 2 oncology drug candidate, ENMD-2076 an Aurora A/angiogenic kinase inhibitor, which demonstrated significant activity against multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines and in MM models in vivo. Results of the study, conducted by EntreMed’s collaborator, Sherif Farag, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The results of the study were published in the on-line version of the British Journal of Haematology on June 15, 2010 and were scheduled to be published in print in the August 1.

Preclinical studies with ENMD-2076 demonstrated significant antitumor activity, including tumor regression, in multiple solid and hematological malignancies. ENMD-2076 has been shown to inhibit a distinct profile of angiogenic tyrosine kinase targets in addition to the Aurora A kinase. Aurora kinases are key regulators of mitosis (cell division), and are often over-expressed in human cancers.