The stock of biotechnology company Biomira (NASDAQ:BIOM), a research and development company specializing in cancer, shot up 146% (to $3.77 a share) from yesterday's closing price after the company announced favorable Phase II trial results for its non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment.
The good news is "a survival median has not yet been reached 23 months following the enrollment of the last patient into the trial." So the really good news is the clock is still ticking for a majority of these patients after almost two years.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in North America, and NSCLC accounts for 75% to 80% of all the primary lung cancers. With 174,000 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed last year in the U.S., it is a significant market, and Biomira got fast-track status for this treatment in September.
Today exploding stock price is somewhat of a surprise because the company announced favorable results for the same treatment in November. At that time the company reported "patients treated with the novel vaccine survived 4.4 months longer than those who received only standard therapy."
The cost of moving ahead is clearly reflected in the $100 million shelf registration the company filed in July. The company still needs to navigate Phase III trials and get past an FDA that is shell-shocked over drug safety issues raised by Merck's (NYSE:MRK) Vioxx.
There is also competition. Corixa (NASDAQ:CRXA) has a vaccine for lung cancer in Phase I trials, and Genentech (NYSE:DNA) and OSI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:OSIP) just won FDA approval two weeks ago for Tarceva, a new NSCLC treatment that extends life expectancies -- and will set a new standard for "standard treatments."
Biomira's stock has made a spectacular one-day gain. The good news is out. Now there is a lot of time and money to be spent before the real payday is reached -- if it ever is.
Fool contributor W.D. Crotty does not own stock in any of the companies mentioned.
