Genmab A/S Rises as Danske Sees FDA Breakthrough

Genmab A/S advanced to a three-day high in Copenhagen trading as Danske Bank A/S said the company may get a “breakthrough” designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an experimental cancer drug. Genmab rose as much as 2.4 percent, the most since Feb. 12. The stock advanced 2 percent to 99.45 kroner at 2:16 p.m. in the Danish capital, with trading volume at 53 percent of the three- month daily average. Shares in the Copenhagen-based drug developer rose more than any of the 20 companies in the OMX Copenhagen 20 benchmark index, which slid 0.1 percent. Genmab’s daratumumab, a drug partnered with Johnson & Johnson for multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that starts in the plasma cells in bone marrow, is an “obvious candidate” to receive a breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA, Danske analyst Thomas Bowers said. “We have been positively surprised by the efficacy that this antibody has demonstrated in myeloma,” Bowers said in a telephone interview. “Perhaps it can get on the market as a single agent. I think it ticks all the boxes to get the breakthrough designation from the FDA.”

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