PrintThe annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, always creates a lot of buzz for biotech stocks as more than 30,000 people gather to hear more than 4,000 presentations highlighting the latest clinical advances in cancer therapies.
Cancer is a big business and although this is a scientific conference, it’s one that Wall Street watches closely and trades on. This year, like last year, big pharmaceutical companies featured their most promising development-stage drugs, many of them targeted therapies—Bristol-Myers Squibb’s newly approved melanoma drug, Roche’s vemurafenib, and Pfizer’s crizotinib. Most of these compounds originated from their biotech partners, who also saw their shares rise on the news.
Below is a select list of biotech companies that saw notable changes in the price of their shares between the release of abstracts at the close of business on May 18, 2011 and the end of the conference in Chicago on June 7, 2011.
Select Biotech Stocks with Notable Price Moves Around ASCO
| Company | Ticker | Price May 18 | Price June 7 | Change | Drug | Results Presented |
| Rxi Pharmaceuticals | Nasdaq: RXII | 0.92 | 1.22 | 32.6% | NeuVax |
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| Pharmacyclics | Nasdaq: PCYC | 6.68 | 7.81 | 16.9% | PCI-32765 |
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| YM BioSciences | AMEX: YMI | 3.02 | 3.26 | 7.9% | CYT387 | Positive safety and efficacy profile from phase 1/2 study of its JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor for the treatment of myelofibrosis. |
| Dendreon | Nasdaq: DNDN | 38.42 | 40.18 | 4.6% | Provenge | Data shows that 39 percent of Provenge patients were pain free after 12 months versus 19 percent in the control group. |
| Seattle Genetics | Nasdaq: SGEN | 18.65 | 19.51 | 4.6% | Adcetris | In development with Millennium, new data showed that complete response times for patients with relapsed forms of Hodgkin's disease were significantly lengthened when treated with Adcetris. |
| GTx | Nasdaq: GTXI | 6.00 | 6.27 | 4.5% | Ostarine | Phase 2b study results for Ostarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator, for the treatment of muscle wasting in patients with cancer. |
| Ariad Pharmaceuticals | Nasdaq: ARIA | 9.21 | 8.65 | -6.1% | ridaforoli-mus | Pivotal trial of oral ridaforolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, in patients with metastatic soft-tissue or bone sarcomas, who previously had a favorable response to chemotherapy, met its primary endpont of improved progression-free survival compared to placebo. Partner Merck plans to seek regulatory approval in the U.S. and EU based on the results. |
| Vical | Nasdaq: VICL | 4.22 | 3.87 | -8.3% | Allovectin-7 | Positive results from new statistical analyses of data from three previously completed trials of Allovectin immunotherapy in patients with metastatic melanoma |
| ImmunoGen | Nasdaq: IMGN | 13.06 | 11.79 | -9.7% | IMGN901 | Positive clinical data from ongoing phase 1 trial of lorvotuzumab mertansine assessing it as part of a combination for the treatment of multiple myeloma. |
| Synta Pharmaceuticals | Nasdaq: SNTA | 5.96 | 5.34 | -10.4% | ganetespib | Phase 2 trial as single agent in gastrointestinal stromal tumors and phase 1 trial in solid tumors |
| Incyte | Nasdaq: INCY | 19.31 | 17.00 | -12.0% | ruxolitinib | Phase 3 study shows ruxolitinib significantly reduced the spleen size in patients with myelofibrosis compared to standard of care treatment. Partner Novartis says it plans to seek regulatory approval. |
| Onyx Pharmaceuticals | Nasdaq: ONXX | 45.37 | 39.72 | -12.5% | carfilzomib | No significant data presented. Analysts concerned about Nexavar's competitive position after positive data from Pfizer's axitinib. |
| Exelixis | Nasdaq: EXEL | 11.66 | 9.76 | -16.3% | cabozantinib | Reports its experimental prostate cancer drug caused the death of six patients in phase 2 trial but also shrank bone tumors in 76 percent of prostate cancer patients. |
| Nektar Therapeutics | Nasdaq: NKTR | 9.87 | 8.24 | -16.5% | NKTR-102 | Positive results from a phase 2 study as single agent as a second-and third-line treatment ini patients with metastatic breast cancer. |
| Oxigene | Nasdaq: OXGN | 5.14 | 3.87 | -24.7% | Zybrestat | Phase 2/3 studies evaluating Zybrestat in combination with chemotherapy to treat anaplastic thyroid cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. |
June 10, 2011
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