The ASCO abstracts are here! The ASCO abstracts are here!
Ever since The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) began posting the abstracts on-line -- and before that when they were sent to attendees -- investors have clamored to get a glimpse at the data that will be presented at the organization's annual meeting, which is slated for June 4-8 this year.
The changes in stock prices on Friday tell the story of what investors thought of the Thursday-evening release of data abstracts.
Company |
Friday's Price Change |
---|---|
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals |
11.2% |
ZIOPHARM Oncology |
9.7% |
Celldex Therapeutics |
(9.2%) |
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.
Keryx has already started a phase 3 trial for its colorectal cancer drug perifosine, but the data from the phase 2 trial is still helpful in giving investors confidence that the phase 3 trial will actually work. So far, so good; overall survival increased from 11 months to 18 months when perifosine was added to Roche's Xeloda compared to Xeloda alone.
ZIOPHARM is testing its cancer drug palifosfamide in combination with doxorubicin, a standard chemotherapy drug, compared to doxorubicin alone in patients with soft tissue sarcoma. Adding palifosfamide increased the median time until the tumor began to grow again by 3.4 months. It's on to a phase 3 trial for palifosfamide.
Investors weren't as impressed with Celldex's immunotherapy CDX-110, which Pfizer
Of course, Celldex's decline could also just be investors taking profits. Even after the drop, the stock is still up about 50% year to date.
A couple of other notables
Large companies aren't going to see their stock move that much based on data in an ASCO abstract, but they're still worth following.
Celgene's
Melanoma is one of the more difficult to treat cancers, but Bristol-Myers Squibb's
A couple of un-notables
ASCO has a policy of not releasing the abstracts for the premier presentations until the meeting starts. Unfortunately, investors won't be able to get a preview of the data for high-profile treatments such as Pfizer's lung cancer drug PF-02341066, Delcath Systems' melanoma treatment, and ArQule's lung cancer drug ARQ 197.
It's the presentations that matter anyway
Because the abstracts have to be turned in months before the conference, the data contained in them is out of date for trials that are ongoing. Updated data presented at the conference is what really matters, and you can expect a few more crazy trading days next month after full data is released.