ImmunoGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMGN), a biotechnology company focused on developing cancer drugs, saw its stock climb 22 percent on news that its potential therapy for breast cancer achieved positive phase 2 trial results. The results showed that that this new experimental therapy could potentially be more effective than a combination of Herceptin and chemotherapy, which is the current standard of care for many HER2-positive breast cancer patients.
The Waltham, Mass.-based biotech’s partner, Swiss drug maker Roche AG (Swiss: RO.SW ), said that T-DM1, a combination of a cancer cell-killing agent developed by Immunogen and Herceptin, developed by Cal.-based Genentech, now owned by Roche, showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival, over the combination of Herceptin plus chemotherapy.
“This top-line information about T-DM1’s performance in the first-line setting is very encouraging and adds to the favorable efficacy and safety data reported across a number of T-DM1 studies. We look forward to learning the detailed data when they are reported at a medical conference,” ImmunoGen CEO Daniel Junius said in a statement.
On Friday, IMGN closed at $12.12, where as last Friday it was trading at $9.00.