EGFR inhibitor stocks tumble

Shares of companies developing EGFR inhibitors for cancer, including OSI (OSIP), Abgenix (ABGX) and ImClone (IMCL) were down on Monday, following the release of FDA briefing documents on Iressa, a small molecule EGFR inhibitor from AstraZeneca (AZN; LSE:AZN) (see above). ABGX and IMCL, which are developing anti-EGFR antibodies, were off $0.85 (13%) to $5.79 and $0.63 to $6.11, respectively, on Monday. Overall, it was not a good day for stocks as the NASDAQ lost 3% and the BioCentury 100 Index shed 3.6%.

OSIP was off $1.71 (12%) to $13.09 on 4.4 million shares on Monday, as investors digested the Iressa briefing documents and OSIP's news that it amended the development plans and timeline for its Tarceva erlotinib small molecule EGFR inhibitor. OSIP will increase enrollment in a Phase III trial of Tarceva to treat refractory non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and run additional NSCLC trials next year. OSIP also will decrease enrollment in a Phase III trial in pancreatic cancer. However, the pancreatic trial now will have a longer follow-up time for patients to meet the primary survival endpoint, and OSIP therefore said that approval in that indication is unlikely to occur before it submits an NDA for the NSCLC indication. ...