Eugene Zvonkov
Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) stock rallied 20% in premarket trading Friday after the Dutch biotech company announced the publication of positive data for its drug petosemtabmab in the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, or HNSCC.
The Phase 2 study showed a 60% response rate among ten evaluable patients. The drug was tested in combination with pembrolizumab, also known as Keytruda, as a first line treatment for recurrent/metastatic HNSCC, according to the company.
The data was published on the website of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, and will be presented at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago, which will be held from May 31 to June 4. The company will also be holding a conference call on May 28 to discuss the data.
Merus also said that it published study abstracts on the ASCO website for its drug candidate MCLA-145 as monotherapy for advanced/metastatic solid tumors and its drug candidate MCLA-129 in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer with c-MET exon 14 skipping mutations. That data will also be presented at the ASCO meeting.
Keytruda is marketed by Merck (MRK).
