GenVec down on TNFerade clinical hold

GNVC was down $1.06 (47%) to $1.20 on 7.2 million shares on Thursday after announcing that FDA plans to place on hold three Phase II trials of its TNFerade gene therapy to treat esophageal, rectal and pancreatic cancer. In GNVC's trial in patients with esophageal cancer, four of eight patients in the highest TNFerade dose group had blood clots, and there was one clot-related death. The company presented data from the trial last week at the EORTC meeting in Geneva. ...