Five Prime claims a big win in topline da­ta for their come­back gas­tric can­cer drug as shares sky­rock­et

Five Prime Ther­a­peu­tics $FPRX has kept a rel­a­tive­ly low pro­file fol­low­ing a flop in pan­cre­at­ic can­cer in late 2017. But the biotech de­clared vic­to­ry in gas­tric can­cer Tues­day af­ter re­leas­ing topline da­ta from a 155-per­son Phase II study.

The South San Fran­cis­co-based com­pa­ny an­nounced that its ex­per­i­men­tal drug be­mar­ituzum­ab, in com­bi­na­tion with chemother­a­py, met all of its pre-spec­i­fied ef­fi­ca­cy end­points. Five Prime was aim­ing for a new path­way in the fi­brob­last growth fac­tor re­cep­tor 2b, which is over­ex­pressed in about 30% of all HER2 neg­a­tive gas­tric can­cers, the com­pa­ny says.

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