With block­buster dreams, Ex­elix­is is look­ing for some re­demp­tion for cabo in prostate can­cer. It won’t be easy

Back a lit­tle over 5 years ago, I re­port­ed on a ma­jor dis­as­ter for Ex­elix­is $EX­EL when cabozan­ti­nib flopped in a com­par­i­son with pred­nisone in treat­ing cas­tra­tion-re­sis­tant prostate can­cer. Caught be­tween a rock and a hard place, the com­pa­ny im­me­di­ate­ly whacked 70% of its work force, as new CEO Michael Mor­ris­sey steered away from the rocks with what was left of the crew.

Mor­ris­sey and the sur­vivors took a con­ser­v­a­tive course, hang­ing on to get an OK for the TKI, which ul­ti­mate­ly proved a fair­ly ef­fec­tive mar­ket mak­er as Cabome­tyx, with more than $1 bil­lion in to­tal rev­enue over a 4-quar­ter stretch. And at JP Mor­gan a few weeks ago Mor­ris­sey threw his cus­tom­ary cau­tion to the wind, paint­ing a rosy pic­ture of the fu­ture, with a po­ten­tial to make the com­pa­ny in­to a $4 bil­lion earn­er by 2025, with 3 up­com­ing piv­otal read­outs.

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