Puma Biotechnology is boasting that its experimental cancer drug neratinib bested Herceptin in a head-to-head study of HER2-positive breast cancer when used ahead of surgery.
The biotech says that neratinib plus chemo achieved a pathological complete response rate of 39% among patients, compared to 23% taking a combination of Herceptin and chemo, according to a report from Reuters. And when you narrow the population down to a set of high-risk patients, the pCR rate was 45% compared to 29% for standard care.
Shares of Puma ($PBYI) surged about 5% on the news this morning.
The Phase II study data were revealed at the American Association for Cancer Research Meeting in San Diego on Monday. Puma CEO Alan Auerbach, who had earlier outlined top-line results for the drug, tells Reuters that the biotech is now designing a Phase III program for the HER2-positive patient group as well as the high-risk patients identified through genetic profiling.
One of the reasons Puma is closely watched is that its executive crew has been here before. Auerbach sold his other biotech cat--Cougar Biotechnology, which developed Zytiga--to Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) in a billion-dollar deal. And he's back in the same development zone he was in when he did the highly successful Cougar deal.
- here's the report from Reuters