What: Shares in Epizyme (EPZM) surged higher by more than 30% earlier today after the company reported positive results from a trial studying its tazemetostat in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
So What: Epizyme's phase 1 results show that 60%, or 9 out of 15, patients taking tazemetostat responded to the treatment, with two of the nine patients enjoying an ongoing complete response.
Among those responding to treatment were five of nine patients with large B-cell lymphoma and three of five patients with follicular lymphoma.
Now What: Epizyme is a clinical-stage biotech company without any approved products on the market, so this is welcome news to investors. However, before investors get too excited they should remember that this is a phase 1 trial, not a phase 3 trial, and that tazemetostat may not show similar efficacy in future trials that are larger in size.
Investors should also bear in mind that there were five severe or life threatening adverse events observed in this early stage trial, so there are safety considerations to digest too.
Regardless, Epizyme is an intriguing company, and this drug could have potential -- especially given that 85% of patients in this trial had received and failed on three or more previous treatments. That suggests that investors will want to keep tabs on tazemetostat's phase 2 trials, which began enrolling patients this quarter.
