Telik shares Jump on positive cancer therapy results
Telik Inc. (Nasdaq: TELK) announced Tuesday positive phase II results of its treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
Shares of Telik jumped by $1.34, or nearly 23%, to $7.23 on heavy volume Tuesday morning after the biopharmaceutical firm said that its triplet combination of Telcyta, carboplatin and paclitaxel resulted in significant improvement in both progression-free survival and overall survival in patients compared with patients who did not receive the therapy.
Telik’s stock has traded between $4.32 (Dec. 28, 2006) and $20.36 (Oct. 23, 2006) in the past year.
By 10:30 ET, about 8.5 million shares had changed hands – nearly 10 times the three-month average volume of 870,000 shares – making Telik the most actively traded stock among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million on Tuesday morning.
Telik announced the results at the 98th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Los Angeles.
The company’s multi-center study enrolled 129 patients with advanced stages of non-small cell lung cancer. Forty-three percent of the patients had disease stabilization.
Telik has a second drug development candidate, Telintra, which is in clinical development for myelodysplastic syndrome, formerly known as preleukemia.
In February, Telik announced it would cut its work force by about 25%, leaving the firm with about 120 employees. At the time, the company said its goal was to significantly cut spending while leaving enough resources to continue drug development.
Also in February, Telik inked a deal with Menlo Park-based SRI International to test a Telik drug candidate for treatment of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Telik licensed the drug candidate, C243, which prevents leukocyte infiltration.
