 Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc NASDAQ:APLS shares surged in pre-market deals after the Nasdaq-listed global biopharma announced that the US regulator had accepted the companys amendment to its new drug application NDA for a therapy for geographic atrophy GA - an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration AMD. GA is a leading cause of blindness that impacts more than five million people worldwide, including one million in the US. 