Puma Biotechnology Inc (NASDAQ: PBYI) stock fell 8.12% on April 1st, 2019 after the company and Pierre Fabre have signed an exclusive license agreement under which Pierre Fabre will develop and commercialize NERLYNX (neratinib) within Europe and part of Africa. But the stock slightly recovered over 0.6% on April 2nd, 2019 (as of 3:17 PM EDT; Source: Google finance)
In September 2018 the European Commission granted marketing authorization for NERLYNX (neratinib) for the extended adjuvant treatment of adult patients with early stage hormone receptor positive HER2-overexpressed/amplified breast cancer and who are less than one year from the completion of prior adjuvant trastuzumab-based therapy. Under the terms of the agreement, Puma will receive an upfront payment of $60 million, as well as additional regulatory and commercial milestone payments totaling up to $345 million. In addition, Puma will receive significant double-digit royalties on NERLYNX sales throughout the territory covered by the license agreement between Puma and Pierre Fabre.
Moreover, Pierre Fabre will have exclusive commercialization rights for NERLYNX in European countries excluding Russia and Ukraine, along with countries in North Africa and francophone countries of West Africa. Pierre Fabre will also be responsible for conducting additional clinical studies and leading regulatory activities in connection with the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Further, Pierre Fabre has developed a strong expertise and presence in breast cancer treatment and the addition of NERLYNX to our historical oncology portfolio will allow us to strengthen our commercial presence. PBYI anticipate providing access to NERLYNX to patients throughout Europe in 2019 and 2020, starting with Germany.
On the other hand, PBYI informed the updated results from the cervical cancer cohort of SUMMIT, an ongoing Phase II basket trial examining the efficacy of neratinib in HER2-mutated cancers, were reported at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2019 Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Phase II SUMMIT ‘basket’ trial is an open-label, multicenter, multinational study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of neratinib administered daily to patients who have solid tumors with activating, somatic HER2 mutations. The cervical cancer cohort was comprised of 11 patients with advanced and/or metastatic disease treated with neratinib monotherapy. Patients received a median of 2 (range 1–4) prior regimens in the recurrent or metastatic setting before entering this trial. Six patients (54.5%) had been previously treated with bevacizumab prior to entering the study; 7 patients (63.6%) had received prior surgery; and 9 patients (81.8%) received prior radiation therapy. The objective response rate was 27.3% (95% CI: 6.0%–61.0%). The clinical benefit rate was 54.5% (95% CI: 23.4%–83.3%) and included 3 patients with confirmed partial responses and 3 patients with stable disease that lasted greater than 16 weeks. The median progression free survival was 7.0 months (95% CI: 0.7–20.1 months).