Why Is Cancer Focused Adagene Stock Plummeting Today?

Author: Vandana Singh | January 17, 2024 12:38pm

Adagene Inc (NASDAQ:ADAG) announced data from its presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2024 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Results come from dose escalation and dose expansion cohorts of ADG126 in combination with Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK) anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) (200 mg/Q3W) evaluating doses from 6 mg/kg to 10 mg/kg in heavily pre-treated advanced/metastatic patients (N=46):

• Limited dose-dependent toxicities were observed.
•  Grade 3 TRAEs occurred in 5/46 patients (10.8%), with no Grade 4 or 5 TRAEs and a discontinuation rate of 6.5% (3/46).
•  In dose escalation across tumor types, two partial confirmed responses (PRs) were observed among the three patients treated with ADG126 10 mg/kg Q3W, which triggered expansion cohorts at this dosing regimen. 
•  Both confirmed PRs are sustained after more than 55 weeks (over 14 cycles) of treatment.
•  In dose expansion of patients with Metastatic Microsatellite-stable (MSS) Colorectal Cancer (CRC), 12 evaluable patients without liver metastases were treated 10 mg/kg Q3W dose:Two confirmed PRs were observed in nine of these patients without peritoneal and liver metastases, resulting in an overall response rate of 22% in this subset.
• An additional seven of these nine patients experienced stable disease (SD) for an overall disease control rate 100% (2 PRs and 7 SD).

In a preliminary PFS analysis of those MSS CRC patients free of liver and peritoneal metastasis, a median PFS of seven months was observed in those treated with ADG126 10 mg/kg at two dosing frequencies pooled together [every three weeks (n=9) and every six weeks (n=6)]. 

The durable clinical activity of ADG126 in combination with pembrolizumab will continue to be evaluated as a larger cohort of subjects becomes evaluable at the 10 mg/kg Q3W dose level.

Price Action: ADAG shares are down 45.80% at $2.05 on the last check Wednesday.

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Posted In: ADAG MRK