NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of GTx Inc. tumbled in premarket trading Wednesday after the company said its drug candidate toremifene did not meet its goals in a clinical trial.
After the markets closed on Tuesday, GTx reported results from a late-stage trial of toremifene. The trial was intended to measure the drug’s ability to prevent prostate cancer in men with precancerous prostate lesions. Men who took toremifene were about 10 percent less likely to develop cancer compared to men who took a placebo, but the difference was not statistically significant.
Shares of the Memphis, Tenn., company fell $1.12, or 37.4 percent, to $1.89 in premarket trading. The stock closed at $3.02 Tuesday.
The study involved 1,590 men with high grade prostate lesions. The men received took either toremifene or a placebo, and were evaluated for the next three years to see how many of them developed prostate cancer. GTx said 45.5 percent of the men in the placebo group had prostate cancer within three years.
GTx is also trying to get toremifene approved to prevent bone fractures caused by hormone deprivation treatment for prostate cancer. GTx and its partner Ipsen are planning to start a new late-stage trial of the drug by the end of this year.
In November, the Food and Drug Administration said at least one more late-stage trial would be needed before it could approve toremifene as a bone drug.
In a note to clients, Rodman & Renshaw analyst Simos Simeonidis said the study results were not surprising. He does not think toremifene will be approved to prevent prostate cancer or bone fractures. Simeonidis believes GTx stock will trade around $2 for now, but fall more within the next year because the company will need to either raise money or make an acquisition.
He kept a “Market Underperform” rating on the stock, and cut his price target to $1.25 per share from $1.75.
