Nuvation Bio won’t take its cancer drug NUV-868 into a Phase 2 trial for now, following a look at interim safety and efficacy data from a Phase 1 trial.
The disclosure came in the biotech’s second-quarter earnings report on Monday. NUV-868 is a BD2-selective BET inhibitor, and the company had been testing it as a monotherapy as well as in combination with Lynparza and Xtandi.
The biotech is now “evaluating next steps for the NUV-868 program,” including whether or not combinations with other approved products work better in different indications. A spokesperson for Nuvation didn’t immediately respond to questions about the reason for the pause.
The shares $NUVB fell about 6% Tuesday, amid a broader sell-off in the market.
The company had been on a roll before the news, recently reporting a 91% overall response rate for its lead drug, taletrectinib, in patients with a select ROS1 mutation who had not yet taken a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Jefferies has said that the asset has “blockbuster global sales potential.”
Nuvation acquired taletrectinib when it bought AnHeart Therapeutics in March. It paid for the company in an all-stock deal, saying Monday that it took a $425.1 million charge for the deal back in April. The company reported $577.2 million in cash and equivalents as of the end of June.