Sunesis plummets on Phase III miss in AML

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SNSS) dropped $5.18 (78%) to $1.46 Monday after its regimen of Qinprezo vosaroxin and cytarabine missed the primary endpoint of improved overall survival (OS) in its Phase III VALOR trial to treat first relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).

Median OS for patients treated with Qinprezo plus cytarabine was 7.5 months compared to 6.1 months for placebo plus cytarabine (p=0.06). The trial did reach the secondary endpoint of complete remission (CR) rates, with 30.1% of patients on the Qinprezo combination reaching CR vs. 16.3% of patients receiving placebo and cytarabine (p=0.0000148). ...