Imclone’s ERBITUX Extends Life in Lung Cancer Patients (IMCL, BMY, DNA)

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 26, 12:11PM EDT · Published Sep 11, 7:22AM EDT

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Shares of Imclone Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:IMCL) are screaming higher this morning on it meeting its primary endpoint of increasing survival in its Phase III lung cancer studies. Imclone and partner Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) showed that ERBITUX in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy met its primary endpoint of increasing overall survival compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

This large, randomized multi-national study, known as FLEX (First-Line Treatment for Patients with Epidermal growth factor inhibitor was conducted by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and enrolled patients with Stage IIIB or Stage IV NSCLC who had not previously received chemotherapy. As part of a quote, Dr. Eric Rowinsky, Chief Medical Officer of Imclone said, "ERBITUX is the only member of the class of epidermal growth factor inhibitors to demonstrate survival in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Previous pivotal trials involving other agents targeting EGFR have failed to demonstrate a survival advantage for these patients."

If Imclone’s head and neck cancer drug can extend the life of lung cancer patients, then this will have even larger potential. This is also taking away a little thunder from Genentech Inc. (NYSE:DNA) as it could end up poaching away sales of its Avastin. Imclone (IMCL) shares are trading up over 25% pre-market at almost $49.00, above the $47.11 prior yearly high. Even Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) shares are up 3% at $28.85 pre-market.

For whatever this is worth, this is not the company saying it has cured lung cancer. But an extension of life is a serious start.

Jon C. Ogg
September 11, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. SPECIAL SITUATION INVESTING NEWSLETTER; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.