Gilead Sciences unveiled mixed results for its drug Trodelvy in women with the most common form of breast cancer on Monday — and GILD stock yo-yoed before closing in the red.
In a large study, Trodelvy lengthened the time patients lived before their cancer worsened. But the drug didn't result in an improvement in overall survival. The results stand in "stark contrast" to a test from rival AstraZeneca, whose drug Enhertu showed promise in the same type of patients, GILD stock analyst Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat said in a report to clients.
Further, the results also call into question the $21 billion Gilead spent to acquire Immunomedics for the drug, Trodelvy, Raffat said. Gilead is looking for success in cancer with patent expirations on the horizon for a number of its virology drugs. But many of its deals have "backfired," he said.
On today's stock market, GILD stock dipped 2.6% to 60.26. Earlier, shares fell as much as 4.8%.
GILD Stock: A Subset Of Breast Cancer
Gilead tested Trodelvy in women with a subtype of breast cancer tied to receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone. But the cancer isn't associated with high levels of a protein called HER2 and, therefore, won't respond to drugs targeting that protein.
In the study, Trodelvy led to a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival, the length of time before patients' cancer worsened. But the results only trended positively for overall survival. AstraZeneca, on the other hand, called its results "practice changing," Raffat said. The results slammed GILD stock.
He says Gilead's test isn't surprising, "but calls into question Gilead's (mergers and acquisitions) outlays." Gilead paid a premium to buy Immunomedics. Other bidders were "miles away" from the $21 billion Gilead put down, he said. Still, Raffat kept his outperform rating on GILD stock.
Gilead expects to have final data in 2024.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
