A type of novel anti-cancer drug (known as the new 'anti-TIGIT therapy') developed by some biotech companies listed on pre-market trading in USA suffered significant stock price declines after a similar drug being actively developed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche failed in phase 2/3 clinical trials.
On Friday, after a similar drug being actively developed by Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, failed in phase 2/3 clinical trials, the stock prices of some biotech companies developing a new type of anti-cancer drug (known as a new 'anti-TIGIT therapy') had a significant drop in pre-market trading. Roche's stock price also fell in the European stock market on Thursday evening, after the company stated that its anti-TIGIT treatment drug, tiragolumab, as a part of a frontline drug combination, failed to reach its primary endpoint in the SKYSCRAPER-06 trial, which it used to treat non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.
The stocks of Roche's biotech competitors in the field of anti-TIGIT treatment, such as Compugen (CGEN.US), Arcus Biosciences (RCUS.US), and ITOS Therapeutics (ITOS.US), all saw significant pressure on their stock prices before the opening of the US market on Friday.
Anti-TIGIT therapy is an emerging cancer immunotherapy that primarily enhances the immune system's anti-cancer response by inhibiting TIGIT receptors. TIGIT is an immune checkpoint receptor that exists on T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. It suppresses the activity of T cells and NK cells by binding with its ligand, such as CD155, thereby weakening the immune system's attack against cancer cells. The purpose of anti-TIGIT therapy is to block the binding of TIGIT and its ligand to relieve the suppression on T cells and NK cells, and strengthen the immune system's anti-tumor activity. This therapy is usually used in combination with other immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, to improve the treatment effect. Roche tested tiragolumab in its SKYSCRAPER-06 global clinical trial, which combined it with the PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq and chemotherapy to treat non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
It is known that Roche's global trial tested the immune checkpoint inhibitor tiragolumab with PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq and combination chemotherapy, compared with the effectiveness of Keytruda (pembrolizumab), a heavyweight cancer treatment drug under Merck and combination chemotherapy.
It is reported that Roche's global trial tested the comparative efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor tiragolumab combined with PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq and chemotherapy against that of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and chemotherapy, a heavyweight cancer treatment drug under the American pharmaceutical giant Merck.
Given the lower efficacy found in the drug combination, Roche stated that it will stop the study and review another tiragolumab clinical project in progress.
Although anti-TIGIT therapy has theoretical potential, Roche's tiragolumab setback in key clinical trials shows challenges and uncertainties in its practical application.
The Zhitong Finance and Economics APP reports that on Friday, the stock prices of some biotech companies that have developed a new type of anti-cancer drug (known as the new "anti-TIGIT therapy") listed on the US stock market fell sharply after a Roche company failure of similar drugs in Phase II/III clinical trials. Among them were Compugens (CGEN.US), Arcus Biosciences (RCUS.US) and ITOS Therapeutics (ITOS.US), all of which fell significantly before the opening of the US market on Friday.