AbbVie shares plummet 7% on cancer drug results
AbbVie Inc. shares dropped nearly 7% in premarket trade Thursday after the company said it will not try for accelerated approval of rovalpituzumab tesirine in third-line relapsed/refractory small cell lung cancer based on the drug's results in a phase 2 trial and the "magnitude of effect across multiple parameters." The decision was made after consulting with the Food and Drug Administration,the company said. AbbVie said it does still believe the drug, also called Rova-T, has potential in small cell lung cancer and other cancers expressing the DLL3 protein, and Rova-T continues to be studied in ongoing phase 3 trials for first-line and second-line small cell lung cancer. AbbVie bought Rova-T in a $5.8 billion deal for Stemcentrx in 2016; Rova-T was the company's lead asset. AbbVie shares have surged 14.5% over the last three months but dropped nearly 3% month-to-date. The S&P 500 has surged 1.1% over the last three months and declined 0.1% month-to-date.
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