Juno Therapeutics Sinks Following ASCO Update

Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO) saw its shares slide after the company reported updated clinical trial results at the Annual Meeting for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Specifically, the company updated its Transcend trial of JCAR017, which is a cellular immunotherapy treatment of relapsed and refractory aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Note that 24/7 Wall St. also has taken a look at some other big movers coming out of ASCO.

As for Juno, this was a dose-finding study of JCAR017, following fludarabine/cyclophosphamide lymphodepletion. Patients were evaluated for pharmacokinetics, disease response and safety outcomes, including those commonly associated with CAR T-cell therapy, such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity (NT).

Patients in this study included those excluded from other trials, including those with ECOG 2 performance status, central nervous system involvement of their lymphoma, and those relapsed after allogeneic bone marrow transplant.

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The overall response rate (ORR) is 86% and the complete response (CR) is 59%. Three-month ORR is 66% and CR is 50%. Of three-month responders followed up at least six months, 90% remain in response.

Out of the population, 2% experienced severe CRS and 18% experienced severe NT, while 66% did not experience any CRS or NT. No deaths were reported from CRS or NT.

Sunil Agarwal, M.D., Juno’s President of Research and Development, commented:

Today’s update of data from the TRANSCEND trial shows continued compelling results in patients with a wide range of aggressive NHL. We are encouraged by the high rates of durable responses and the early survival data in these patients. We are also encouraged by the early safety data—a majority of patients treated experienced no cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity of any grade, which suggests the potential for outpatient administration.

Shares of Juno were last seen down nearly 10% at $23.66, with a consensus analyst price target of $31.09 and a 52-week trading range of $17.52 to $49.72.

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