Health and Healthcare

The 5 Winners and Losers From ASCO Presentations

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With the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting just two weeks away, investors, doctors and cancer patients are anxiously awaiting some of the key presentations and abstracts that are set to come out in the next two or three weeks. The good news is that some of those abstracts and presentations have already been shown or were previewed. The bad news is that it is not creating a universal win in the hit biotech sector.

24/7 Wall St. has identified three winners and two losers from this week in the speculative biotech area. It is no secret that presentations at the annual ASCO meeting can make or break companies.

Winners

Vascular Biogenics Ltd. (NASDAQ: VBLT) announced that it will present positive Phase 1/2 data for VB-111 in recurrent platinum-resistant Mullerian cancer at the ASCO. According to the company, VB-111 has the potential to treat a range of solid tumor indications by selectively targeting the blood vessels required for tumor growth and inducing apoptosis of cells in those blood vessels. Vascular Biogenics shares were up 43.6% at $5.86 on Thursday afternoon. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $3.09 to $17.02.

Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY) has two abstracts related to ONT-380 for the treatment of breast cancer published for ASCO. One of the abstracts summarized data from a triplet therapy that consisted of Oncothyreon’s experimental ONT-380. At the same time, ONT-380 was combined with Xeloda and Herceptin in patients with heavily pre-treated HER2-positive breast cancer. Shares of Oncothyreon were up 31% at $1.94, in a 52-week trading range of $1.41 to $3.60.

ALSO READ: Could This Speculative Biotech More Than Triple?

Clovis Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: CLVS) announced that it would have two oral presentations and six poster sessions highlighting the updated results and trial designs from clinical studies of the company’s three compounds in advanced clinical development. This will include an update from the TIGER-X study of rociletinib in EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. Shares of Clovis were up 13.5%, at $97.61 in a 52-week trading range of $35.33 to $99.50.

Losers

NewLink Genetics Corp. (NASDAQ: NLNK) announced on Tuesday that it would continue its cancer drug study, abandoning hope for early completion. Shares dropped nearly 29% to $36.55 from $52.14 on the news. The drug candidate in question was algenpantucel-L, which is aimed at treating pancreatic cancer and has received special designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowing for quicker development and a speedy review process. However, as the company announced it will not be proceeding as quickly as some might have hoped. Shares of NewLink were down 0.8%, at $37.98 in a 52-week trading range of $17.32 to $58.73.

ImmunoGen Inc. (NASDAQ: IMGN) allowed investors to have a peek at the efficacy and safety of its antibody-drug conjugate IMGN853. This might even be considered one of the most important drugs in ImmunoGen’s pipeline. Enrollment for the trial continues, and updated data is to be presented at the meeting. Shares of Immunogen were down 4% at $8.74 on the day, but note that shares are still higher than where they were on Tuesday. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $5.34 to $13.78.

ALSO READ: Analyst Lists 5 Potential Biotech Buyout Candidates

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