Epizyme jumps on Celgene, GSK milestones
Epizyme Inc. (NASDAQ:EPZM) jumped $15.49 (76%) to $35.99 on Tuesday after announcing it received milestone payments from partners Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) and GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK). Epizyme said a $25 million milestone from Celgene was triggered by objective responses in patients with translocations of the myeloid-lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL; HRX) gene who are enrolled in the fourth cohort of an open-label Phase I trial evaluating EPZ-5676 for heavily pre-treated advanced hematological malignancies. Celgene has ex-U.S. rights to the histone methyltransferase DOT1L (DOT1L) inhibitor from Epizyme under a 2012 deal.
With Tuesday's gain, Epizyme is now above its share price on Nov. 13, before the company fell $11.77 (37%) to $19.94 after reporting data from 16 patients in the first four cohorts of the trial (see BioCentury Extra, Nov. 14, 2013). ...