What happened
Shares of Oncorus (ONCR) were crashing 44.7% lower at 11:11 a.m. EST on Friday. The big decline came after the drugmaker announced initial data from its ongoing phase 1 clinical study evaluating experimental immunotherapy ONCR-177 in treating patients with solid tumors.
Oncorus reported that ONCR-177 was well tolerated. It said that there were no dose-limiting toxicities in heavily pretreated patients with surface lesions who were part of the dose-escalation part of the study.
The company also referred to the initial clinical response data as "positive." Oncorus said that three of eight evaluable patients experienced clinical benefit after receiving two doses of ONCR-177.
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So why did the biotech stock plunge? Investors were clearly hoping for better results.
Of the three patients who had clinical benefit after being treated with ONCR-177, one with cutaneous melanoma had a partial response (some tumor shrinkage). Investigators observed a clinical response in another patient with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, but no details were provided. The third patient with mucosal melanoma had stable disease (the cancer didn't improve or worsen).
So what
The most important thing to keep in mind about Oncorus' results is that they're still very early. The initial data reported by the company today was only from the first part of a four-part phase 1 study.
Now what
Oncorus is moving forward with the other parts of the study. The company expects to begin enrolling patients in the second and third parts by the end of this year. Oncorus hopes to announce additional results beginning in mid-2022.