Xencor’s lead drug fails a PhII test for lupus, shares slide
Shares of Xencor tumbled Friday as the biotech tried to explain — largely unsuccessfully — why the failure of its Phase II lupus drug study was really an overall plus.
The mid-stage study of XmAb5871 enrolled 104 patients. But researchers said that the placebo effect was magnified after 10 patients dropped out of the control arm, compared to 2 in the drug arm.
Measuring the continued improvement in patients after 225 days, the company said that the drug arm hit 42% compared to a 28.2% response in the placebo arm. That qualified for a failed p value of 0.18 on the primary endpoint.
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