Antisoma shares leap on positive lung cancer data
Last Updated: 2007-08-22 9:00:47 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Ben Hirschler
LONDON (Reuters) - An experimental drug from Britain's Antisoma Plc and Swiss-based Novartis AG has shown promising results in clinical trials for lung cancer, sending shares in Antisoma 20 percent higher.
Antisoma said on Thursday a single-arm phase II trial with ASA404 in non-small cell lung cancer had produced positive final results.
"These positive results strongly support our earlier trial findings, which showed that adding ASA404 to chemotherapy improves survival in patients with lung cancer," Chief Operating Officer Ursula Ney said in a statement.
Novartis, Antisoma's partner, plans to start enrolment of patients into a final-stage phase III trial early in 2008.
ASA404 has had mixed results in other cancer trials, and Antisoma stock fell last month following disappointing tests in ovarian cancer.
Lung cancer, however, is seen as the main near-term opportunity for the drug, which Novartis licensed from Antisoma in April.
Piper Jaffray analyst Sam Fazeli, who rates Antisoma "outperform", said the latest results provided investors with further comfort that the drug was active in lung cancer.
"This is particularly welcome given the recent inconclusive data from the ovarian cancer trial," he added in a note.
Full details of the phase II trial will be presented on Sept. 5 at the World Lung Cancer Conference in Seoul.
The next set of results with ASA404, in prostate cancer, are due before the end of October. If those prove positive, Fazeli believes this would underpin ASA404's potential as a blockbuster medicine with sales of more than $1 billion a year, despite the ovarian cancer setback.
Antisoma has received an upfront payment of $75 million from Novartis for ASA404 and could receive as much as $890 million if a series of milestones are met and the Basel-based firm acquires rights to a second related drug.
ASA404, if successful, would be the first in a new type of anti-cancer treatment designed to disrupt the flow of blood to tumours.
It works in a different way from Roche Holding AG's established medicine, Avastin, which also starves tumour cells of blood. ASA404 is expected to help the 25 to 40 percent of patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who cannot take Avastin.
NSCLC is the most common form of lung cancer, accounting for about 80 percent of cases.
Antisoma shares were 20.2 percent higher at 34.25 pence by 1040 GMT, while Novartis was up 0.4 percent at 63.25 Swiss francs.
(Additional reporting by Mike Elliott)
