Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

SGEN -10% on positive phase-3 in first-line HL where investors evidently expected better results:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/takeda-seattle-genetics-announce-positive-104500799.html

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Seattle Genetics…today announced that the Phase 3 ECHELON-1 clinical trial met its primary endpoint of a statistically significant improvement in modified progression-free survival (PFS) versus the control arm..

… Patients in ECHELON-1 were randomized to receive either a combination of ADCETRIS+AVD (Adriamycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) or ABVD (Adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) [i.e. a 4-chemo cocktail], a recognized standard of care for frontline Hodgkin lymphoma. The results of the ECHELON-1 trial demonstrated that combination treatment with ADCETRIS resulted in a statistically significant improvement in modified PFS versus the control arm as assessed by an Independent Review Facility (hazard ratio=0.770; p-value=0.035).

The two-year modified PFS rate for patients in the ADCETRIS arm was 82.1 percent compared to 77.2 percent in the control arm. Interim analysis of overall survival (OS), the key secondary endpoint, also trended in favor of the ADCETRIS+AVD arm. An abstract will be submitted for data presentation at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, December 9-12, 2017, in Atlanta, Ga.

First-line HL patients tend to be young and they have a pretty good chance of a full-fledged cure, so these data are more meaningful that they might otherwise seem.