A medical device from Novocure extended overall survival for lung cancer patients, but NVCR stock crashed Tuesday on the somewhat muddy test results.
Novocure makes Optune, a wearable skin patch that delivers electrical fields to disrupt the rampant division of cancer cells. In patients with lung cancer, adding Optune to standard therapies extended patients' overall survival by a median of 3.3 months.
The company also described a "profound" benefit in patients who received a checkpoint inhibitor — like Merck's Keytruda or Bristol Myers Squibb's Opdivo. Those patients lived a median of 7.7 months longer than those treated with checkpoint inhibitors alone.
Primary investigator Ticiana Leal called the results "highly encouraging." Leal is a researcher and medical oncologist at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.
But critics note Novocure tested Optune in patients who worsened following chemotherapy. That's no longer the standard of care in lung cancer. Most patients first receive checkpoint inhibitors.
On today's stock market, NVCR stock collapsed 43% to close at 47.
NVCR Stock: Expanding Novocure's Market
Optune is already approved to treat patients with a form of brain cancer. But approval in non-small cell lung cancer would expand Novocure's market significantly.
Patients who received treatment with Optune on top of standard drugs lived for a median of 13.2 months compared with 9.9 months for patients who received standard therapies alone. Treatment with Optune on top of checkpoint inhibitors led to a median survival of 18.5 months. In comparison, patients given only checkpoint-blocking drugs survived for 10.8 months at the median.
Novocure also tested a combination of Optune and chemotherapy. Those patients had a median survival of 11.1 months vs. 8.7 months for chemo alone.
But an examination of progression-free survival turned out more bearish for NVCR stock. Progression-free survival measures how long patients live on treatment before their cancer worsens. Adding Optune to standard drugs extended progression-free survival to 4.8 months vs. 4.1 months for standard drugs alone.
The news sent NVCR stock to its lowest point since mid-2019. Novocure shares also dropped definitively below their 50-day moving average, according to MarketSmith.com.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
