Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Sees its Worst Day in 17 Years

Biopharma company Spectrum Pharmaceuticals were crashing on Thursday after the company said a mid-stage trial of a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had missed its main goal.

The stock saw a drop of over 57%, marking it one of the worst performances for shares in 17 years. The move was the second-biggest, one-day percentage decline after the stock dropped 64% on April 29, 2002.

The company announced that a phase 2 trial called Zenith20 that was evaluating Spectrum’s poziotinib therapy in previously treated NSCLC patients had not met its main goal in the first group of 115 patients receiving 15 mg a day.

The company said that only about 15% of the patients in the trial responded to the therapy.

“While the response rate of Cohort 1 in this trial was lower than we expected, the positive signals observed for this cohort provide support for the continued clinical evaluation of poziotinib in this patient population with significant unmet medical need,” Chief Executive Joe Turgeon said in a statement.

“We look forward to providing read outs from Cohorts 2 and 3 in 2020, and plan to provide an update on the overall program strategy during the first quarter of 2020 after a full evaluation of the data from Cohort 1 is completed.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPPI) and have not been compensated for this article.