JNCE - Jounce drops ~29% as lung cancer therapy fails in mid-stage trial

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. ( NASDAQ: JNCE ) lost ~29% in the pre-market trading Tuesday after the company announced that its experimental lung cancer therapy vopratelimab and pimivalimab combo failed to reach primary endpoint in a mid-stage study.

The SELECT trial was designed to evaluate monoclonal antibody vopratelimab with investigational PD-1 inhibitor, pimivalimab against pimivalimab alone in a group of immunotherapy naïve non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

The 69-subject trial did not reach the primary objective of mean tumor change averaged over 9 and 18 weeks, JNCE said citing topline data as of July 07 data cutoff.

The mean percent change from baseline in tumor size for the pooled combo doses compared to pimi monotherapy stood at 7% over 9 and 18 weeks, while the trial was powered to detect a 20% absolute difference as primary endpoint.

However, vopratelimab continued to demonstrate a favorable safety profile with adverse events in the combination cohorts being comparable to the monotherapy arm in terms of frequency and types.

Despite early efficacy trends seen in lower vopra dose combination arm, “the SELECT results do not support moving into registration studies as had been our previous goal,” JNCE’s Chief Executive Richard Murray noted.

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