October 21, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
LEXINGTON, Mass. -- Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. stock crashed more than 72 percent after the company announced Tuesday night that it was terminating its late-stage lung cancer trial after the company determined the addition of ganetespib to docetaxel did not statistically improve survivability.
The company halted the second-line treatment trial, dubbed GALAXY-2, for patients with advanced non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma after the study’s Independent Data Monitoring Committee reported there was statistical improvement in overall survival rates of patients taking the combination in comparison to taking docetaxel alone. Docetaxel is a well-established chemotherapy medication used in a variety of cancer treatments.
“This disappointing outcome underscores the challenges of treating lung cancer in the second-line setting and determining the precise population for whom ganetespib may be most effective,” Chen Schor, president and chief executive officer of Synta, said in a statement.
Company hit a morning low of 56 cents per share, falling from its closing price of $2.04 per share on Tuesday.
Schor said the company will evaluate its future strategy, but did not specify if the trial will lead to layoffs. “With the significant cash reserves we have in hand, our pipeline, our scientific internal leadership and network of advisors, we expect to undertake a comprehensive review of our strategy going forward,” Schor said in a statement.
If layoffs are necessary, it won’t be the first time Synta has cut staff this year. In February, Synta slashed its workforce by 20 percent to shore up finances and streamline operations to allow the company to focus on its ganetespib pipeline.
Synta said it will communicate with regulatory authorities, and will notify study investigators that treatment with ganetespib should be discontinued in the GALAXY-2 trial. “This disappointing outcome underscores the challenges of treating lung cancer in the second-line setting and determining the precise population for whom ganetespib may be most effective.”
Ganetespib, which blocks heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) that facilitates cancerous tumor growth, is currently in Phase III development for the treatment of a broad range of cancers, the GALAXY-2 clinical trial. Heat shock proteins assist proteins in the body to function properly, but with cancerous cells, can foster growth. Ganetespib would function as an Hsp90 inhibitor, the company said.
While the GALAXY-2 trial has been halted, Synta said it will continue to support enrollment in four additional large, randomized, multi-center investigator-sponsored studies, including: the GANNET53 trial of ganetespib and paclitaxel in ovarian cancer; the AML LI-1 trial of ganetespib with low dose cytarabine (Ara-C) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS); the AML18 trial of ganetespib with standard DA (daunorubicin and Ara-C) in AML and high-risk MDS; and the I-SPY 2 TRIAL of ganetespib and standard chemotherapy in women with newly diagnosed, locally advanced breast cancer.
According to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Adenocarcinoma is a type of cancer that forms in mucus-secreting glands throughout the body. Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 80 percent of lung cancers, and adenocarcinoma is the most common type, according to the Centers report.
