ImmunoGen and Day One Biopharmaceuticals unveiled promising cancer treatment updates over the weekend, leading IMGN stock and DAWN stock to soar Monday.
Both updates came during the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.
ImmunoGen tested its drug, Elahere, against chemotherapy in a specific group of patients with ovarian cancer. Elahere lowered the risk of disease progression or death by 35%. Meanwhile, Day One tested its drug in pediatric brain tumors. Overall, 67% of patients responded to treatment.
On today's stock market, IMGN stock popped 7% to 15.37. DAWN stock rose 2.6% to 13.95, paring back steeper gains.
IMGN Stock: Confirming Elahere's Benefit
The results in ovarian cancer could cement Elahere's spot as the standard treatment for patients with a specific form of ovarian cancer. Elahere targets a receptor called folate receptor alpha.
Importantly, the results also confirm the benefit of Elahere, removing an overhang for IMGN stock, SVB Securities analyst Jonathan Chang said in a note to clients. Elahere had accelerated approval in ovarian cancer, but that was dependent on a confirmatory study.
"We believe the success of (the confirmatory study called) Mirasol should remove any regulatory overhang and shift investor focus to the launch trajectory and initial sales guidance, which is expected with second-quarter earnings," he said.
Chang has a market perform rating on IMGN stock.
Shares have a perfect IBD Digital Relative Strength Rating of 99, putting them in the top 1% of all stocks when it comes to 12-month performance.
DAWN Stock: Approval Filing Approaches
Day One Bio tested its experimental treatment in children and young adults age six months to 25 years old with relapsed or progressive gliomas. The drug, dubbed tovorafenib, looks for cancer-causing mutations in the BRAF gene.
Overall, 67% of patients responded to the treatment. The clinical benefit rate — which measures the percentage of patients who had a complete or partial response, or whose cancer was stable for six months — was 93%.
"Of note, this is consistent and incrementally better than the previously reported top line overall response rate of 64% and clinical benefit rate of 91%," Wedbush analyst Robert Driscoll said in a note. Driscoll has an outperform rating and 38 price target on DAWN stock.
The company is actively submitting information to the Food and Drug Administration. Day One hopes to file for approval in October.
In Other Cancer Treatment News
- Replimune stock surged 19% to 22.60 on an update for its skin cancer treatment in two groups of patients — melanoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. More than one-third of melanoma patients, 37%, responded to the treatment.
- Gilead Sciences and Arcus Biosciences offered an update on their lung cancer treatment, a blocker of a receptor called TIGIT. Patients given two-drug and three-drug regimens lived for medians of 9.3 months and 9.9 months before worsening. But Arcus stock skidded 2.2% to 20.54 as the results diminished from a previous update.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
