What: Shares of Clovis Oncology (NASDAQ: CLVS), a biopharmaceutical company focused on treating a variety of cancers, rocketed 19% higher today. Investors were excited by the updated data that the company presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer that is currently happening in Denver.
So what: The company is having a busy meeting, as it provided updates through four different mini-oral presentations and also presented two scientific posters related to rociletinib, the company's investigational oral treatment option for non-small cell lung cancer.
During the presentations, the company provided a huge variety of clinical data related to its TIGER-X trials, which measured the effectiveness of rociletinib in multiple subsets of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Overall, investors were impressed by the clinical data that was presented at the meeting, and they continue to bid shares higher today.
Now what: Investors are certainly excited about the potential for rociletinib, as are regulators, as the drug was granted the much coveted Breakthrough Therapy designation by FDA last year. Clovis has already completed U.S. and EU regulatory submissions with the drug, and if all goes well it could be on the market by as early as the fourth quarter of this year in the U.S. and by 2016 in Europe.
Expectations are currently running high for this treatment; earlier in the year Goldman Sachs estimated that the drug could fetch around $1.5 billion to $2 billion in peak sales.
Beyond this compound, investors also have high hopes for another one of the company's compounds, rucaparib, which is being studied as a treatment for ovarian cancer. The FDA has also anointed this drug with Breakthrough Therapy designation.
Clovis has been a terrific stock for investors, as it has simply crushed the returns of the market since it came public in late 2011.
Investors have a lot to be excited about with Clovis, as the company's product candidates appear to be the real deal, and a recently completed equity offering provides the company with a war chest of cash and equivalents that currently stands around $676 million.
However, despite all this positive news, investors should keep in mind that the just because a drug has been submitted for approval, there is no guarantee of success, making Clovis a high-risk, high-reward stock. Still, given the performance of the stock thus far and the potential for its product candidates, Clovis might be a great candidate to fill in the speculative portion of your portfolio.
