Drug Trial Halt Crushes Shares of Antigenics
Yesterday Antigenics(AGEN) was a $233 million company, today $135 million. So where does $100 million go in one day? In the pharmaceutical industry a single drug can make or big even the largest of competitors, in this case the drug was Oncophage. Oncophage is Antigenics’ star kidney cancer treatment. While in advanced trials an independant review of Antigenics’ study found that patients on the drug were not fulfilling the study requirements. Patients were required to be kidney cancer sufferers who had under gone surgery and now do not have signs of cancer. The independant group found that some of members in the study did still have signs of cancer. Antigenics plans to continue the development of the drug and will meet with the FDA to discuss further planning.