Why Threshold Pharma Is Imploding

Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: THLD) watched its stock completely collapse in Monday’s session after a joint late-stage study failed to yield positive results. These Phase 3 studies were being conducted under Threshold’s collaboration with Merck KGaA, in Darmstadt, Germany.

These company announced the outcomes of two Phase 3 cancer studies (MAESTRO and TH-CR-406/SARC021) of evofosfamide (previously known as TH-302), an investigational hypoxia-activated prodrug, which is being evaluated for first-line treatment of advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma and advanced soft tissue sarcoma, in combination with chemotherapy.

Patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic soft tissue sarcoma treated with evofosfamide in combination with doxorubicin did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in overall survival compared with doxorubicin alone.

Threshold will not be pursing further development of evofosfamide in soft tissue sarcoma and pancreatic cancer.

Barry Selick, Ph.D., CEO of Threshold, commented:

We are surprised and disappointed that these studies did not show that evofosfamide could extend the lives of patients with these two difficult-to-treat diseases. Threshold has been pursuing evofosfamide for over ten years in collaboration with world-class scientists and investigators throughout the world. While we believe there remains substantial data to support the role of hypoxia in cancer treatment resistance, we are deeply frustrated with our inability in these trials to impact that in a meaningful way. I would like to thank all of the patients and their families, and the physicians, nurses, and support staff who participated in these studies.

So far in 2015, Threshold had outperformed the market until today, with the stock up 5% year to date, and up 11% over the past 52-weeks. However, the results of this study absolutely tanked the stock.

Shares of Threshold Pharma were last seen trading down about 82% at $0.60, with a consensus analyst price target of $12.17 and a 52-week trading range of $0.51 to $5.28.
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