- Positive results from trial of cancer drug Jemperli
- Regulatory submissions expected in H1
- Sales expected to reach £100-£150m by 2027
Pharmaceutical company GSK (GSK) said a late-stage trial of its cancer drug Jemperli used in conjunction with chemotherapy reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 72% and by 36% in the overall patient population.
The shares ticked up 0.4% to £14.29 and are down around 15% over the last year.
The phase three RUBY trial is investigating the effectiveness of the drug in combination with standard-of-care chemotherapy as a first line treatment for women with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.
Hesham Abdullah, head of global oncology development at GSK, said: ‘These positive results from the RUBY trial bring us one step closer to addressing the significant unmet needs of endometrial cancer patients and add to the growing body of evidence on dostarlimab, strengthening our belief in its potential to transform cancer treatment as a backbone immuno-oncology therapy.’
GSK plans to make regulatory submissions in the first half of 2023 based on the data.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FINANCIALLY?
Healthcare analyst Sean Conroy at Shore Capital estimates that his and consensus analyst expectations are ‘conservatively’ pegged for the drug to achieve sales of £100 million to £150 million in fiscal 2027.
‘GSK had announced RUBY met its primary endpoint back in December, so we knew the study had been a success, but the magnitude of benefit demonstrate looks particularly impressive, in our view.
‘We believe the real importance for Jemperli is longer term as it could form the foundations of the future GSK Oncology portfolio, providing GSK with a backbone drug from which to build novel combinations.
‘Increasing visibility and delivery from some of its early-stage assets, particularly in immuno-oncology, could provide grounds for longer-term growth, in our view, particularly as GSK still has inspire more confidence that it can deliver sales growth beyond FY26F, when it will be facing some key patent expiries.’
