The first company in focus today is Prescient Therapeutics Ltd (ASXTX). This one’s a small Australian biotechnology company that will likely be a new name for many but it’s grabbing headlines already this week on news that the FDA has allowed it to restart a clinical trial that was previously put on hold. The trail is investigating the safety and efficacy of a drug called PTX-200 in patients with breast cancer but, earlier this year, the FDA placed a clinical hold on the investigation when reports hit press that a woman taking the drug had died due to liver failure.
Initial concerns were that this liver failure came about on the back of dosing with the active compound but the company maintained that the death wasn’t due to complications with its own drug but instead was rooted in the fact that the woman was also taking paclitaxel, which is a standard of care chemotherapy asset that is known to affect liver metabolism.
Despite the company’s suggestion that the drug was safe, Prescient was forced to halt a total of three trials, one being the already discussed breast cancer trial and two others – one looking at the drug in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and the other an investigation into efficacy in ovarian cancer.
Back in September, the FDA allowed the company to resume its AML trial and, as per the latest news, the ovarian cancer trial is now back underway. The breast-cancer trial is yet to resume but, given the latest news, there’s a good chance we will see said resumption at some point near term.
Prescient has picked up a bit of strength on the back of the second resumption but the third and final resumption, when it hits press, will likely be a major upside driver.
PTX Price at posting:
6.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
TX). This one’s a small Australian biotechnology company that will likely be a new name for many but it’s grabbing headlines already this week on news that the FDA has allowed it to restart a clinical trial that was previously put on hold. The trail is investigating the safety and efficacy of a drug called PTX-200 in patients with breast cancer but, earlier this year, the FDA placed a clinical hold on the investigation when reports hit press that a woman taking the drug had died due to liver failure.
