BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

To market, to market

Investors watching for new approvals and cancer, Orphan data in 2Q17

April 7, 2017 10:45 PM UTC
Investors expect the data to be positive because they were the basis for Incyte and Merck’s decision to expand the Phase III development plan. The combination was already in Phase III in first-line melanoma; this year, the partners will start trials in NSCLC, renal cell carcinoma (RCC), bladder cancer and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).

Investors are hoping that a slew of approvals and data readouts can maintain biotech’s momentum on the heels of several high-profile successes that came just before or after 1Q’s end.

Chief among those was Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Phase III data for the combination of tezacaftor (VX-661) and Kalydeco ivacaftor in cystic fibrosis. Tezacaftor is expected to be part of a triple combination therapy that could potentially address a wider population of CF patients than those with delta F508 mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)...