Investors will want to keep an eye on developments at this week’s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, where four members of big pharma will share study results of their most promising cancer drugs. The news has the potential to move the shares of the presenters-- Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (DSNKY, Financial), AstraZeneca PLC (AZN, Financial), Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD, Financial) and Roche Holding AG (RHHBY, Financial).
The release of pre-meeting abstracts already impacted the stocks of several biotech companies, including Adicet Bio Inc. (ACET, Financial), Arcellx Inc. (ACLX, Financial), PMV Pharmaceuticals Inc. (PMVP, Financial) and Mereo BioPharma Group PLC (MREO, Financial), all which rose, and SpringWorks Therapeutics Inc. (SWTX) and Mirati Therapeutics Inc. (MRTX, Financial), which declined by 50% and 38%.
According to Evaluate Pharma, the meeting may reveal if the Daiichi-AstraZeneca medication Enhertu changes how breast cancer is treated. Enhertu is already established as the preferred way to treat breast cancer patients whose tumors overexpress a protein known as HER2.
The drug was conditionally approved for third-line use in treating metastatic disease in 2019, and just a few weeks ago was green-lighted by the Food and Drug Administration for second-line care, presenting a challenge to well-established treatments from Roche.
In March, AstraZeneca and Daiichi said Enhertu kept tumors from spreading and stretched survival longer than doctors’ choice of chemotherapy. Data shared at ASCO could show whether the drug helps all patients with low HER2 levels or only a more narrow group.
Investors are also expected to find out whether the billions spent by Gilead on developing a cancer business are paying off. Gilead forked over $21 billion to buy Immunomedics and its cancer drug Trodelvy.
So far, sales of Trodelvy have yet to reach the hoped for blockbuster status. To gain entry into that prestigious club, the phase 3 study of the drug will need to show a clear advantage over less expensive chemotherapies used in two forms of breast cancer that account for 60% to 70% of all cases, reported BioPharma Dive.
Biotech analysts will find out if their skepticism about a group of cancer medicines aimed at a cellular target called TIGIT is warranted when Roche shares the results of a study of its prospect called tiragolumab. To date, the news has not been good. Since March, the drug has fallen short in two phase 3 trials in different forms of lung cancer.
Negative results for the first trial will be disclosed at ASCO on June 5. Although the study was run in a particularly aggressive and tough-to-treat type of lung cancer, the data could still yield answers about TIGIT before the next big readout: a phase 2 study from Gilead and partner Arcus Biosciences Inc. (RCUS, Financial) later this year.
