(Bloomberg) -- NextCure plunged 57% in pre-market trading Monday, peeling back gains last week that drove shares to more than triple after positive early data for a new cancer treatment, NC318. The latest update, however, showed that only lung cancer tumors responded to the experimental immunotherapy treatment.
- NC318 inhibits a protein expressed on some tumors, siglec-15 (S15), which is thought to suppress immune responses; siglec-15 may be the next immuno-oncology target similar to PD1/PDL1s like the blockbuster medicines, Merck's Keytruda and Bristol's Opdivo
- “Too early to call NextCure's siglec-15 NC318 the next big thing,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Cinney Zhang wrote in a note, “many questions remain open” including why the only complete response was only seen at the lowest dose
- The washout period for prior treatments as well as the initial size of the tumor and why no responses were seen in other tumor types may also draw scrutiny
- “The huge success of PD-1 as an IO target gives so much hope for S15, particularly given S15 drugs could potentially treat non-overlapping patients. But more proof is definitely needed.”
- With only 3 analysts covering NextCure, all at a buy, Piper Jaffray raised their PT to Street high of $95 from $54 after the data
- Analyst Edward Tenthoff noted latest results show that for the lung cancer patients there was one complete response out to 55 weeks, one partial response at 28 weeks and 4 patients with stable disease for a response rate of 20% and a disease control rate of 60%
- Shares fell 57% to $35.50 as of 8:31 a.m. in New York; the stock had surged as high as $92.22 last week
- NextCure climbed 452% so far this year, vs Russell 2000 Health Care (RGUSHS) unchanged
To contact the reporter on this story: Cristin Flanagan in New York at cflanagan1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Courtney Dentch
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