Immunogen Inc. (NASDAQ: IMGN) is seeing a substantial move today on word of TDM-1 under development by Roche and ImmunoGen posted higher response rates and also showed lower toxicity than the blockbuster breast cancer drug Herceptin.
The study is in 137 women with metastatic breast cancer who had no prior chemotherapy. The study was also randomized to treatment with TDM-1 or Herceptin plus the chemotherapy drug Taxotere. Also noted was that the response rate in patients treated with TDM-1 was 48% compared to a 41% response rate in patients that were treated with Herceptin and Taxotere.
This is from results from the first head-to-head study of these two drugs that will be presented at a cancer meeting in Europe on Monday. The data in breast cancer patients is still very early and very preliminary but also suggests that TDM-1 could be the next blockbuster drug and a replacement of Herceptin.
Immunogen shares are up 5.8% as it is Roche’s partner and the $7.09 price compares to a 52-week trading range of $4.96 to $10.90.
Elsewhere, there have been a whopping 5,500 of the OCT-2010 $7.50 CALLS versus a prior open interest of only 1,199 contracts. the NOV-2010 CALLS have also seen more than 1,000 contracts in each the $7 and $8 strike prices and that is far higher than the open interest in each.
JON C. OGG
