Roche oral drug shown to keep breast cancer at bay, boosting shares

By Ludwig Burger

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Roche’s experimental oral drug giredestrant has been shown to cut the risk of recurrence of a common form of breast cancer after surgery, boosting the company’s shares and underpinning its traditional credentials in oncology.

The Swiss drugmaker said on Tuesday that a scheduled interim analysis of a late-stage trial showed the experimental pill resulted in a clinically meaningful improvement in keeping patients disease-free after surgery compared with standard endocrine therapy.

More details are to be published at a medical conference to be announced as Roche works towards regulatory approval, the company added.

The prospect of the drug reducing the spread of early-stage disease to other body parts lifted the company’s share price by 6.1% to an eight-month high of 304.90 Swiss francs ($383.23) by 0939 GMT, with JPMorgan analysts calling the news a significant positive surprise.

If approved, the clinical use explored in the trial could generate about $5 billion in annual revenue, the analysts added.

Investors have been concerned that Roche is relying too heavily on its older blockbuster drugs, even as the family controlled company steps up efforts to break into the fast-growing obesity market and diversify away from oncology.

The giredestrant pill belongs to a class known as oral selective oestrogen receptor degraders (SERD) to fight tumours that grow in response to oestrogen, which are estimated to account for up to 80% of all breast cancer cases.

The market opportunity has also attracted AstraZeneca, which is developing rival compound camizestrant, while Sanofi’s development efforts in this area have failed.

($1 = 0.7956 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Ludwig BurgerEditing by David Goodman)