Antisoma shares jump 16% after positive trials for lung cancer drug

Shares in the biopharmaceutical company Antisoma jumped 16 per cent yesterday after the cancer specialist revealed positive data from phase II trials of its lung cancer drug.

Previous studies of ASA404 when used in conjunction with chemotherapy indicated that the drug increased survival rates by more than five months, which Antisoma described as "one of the largest increases in average survival rates ever reported in cancer". The latest data supported those findings.

Shares in the company rose 4.5p to 33p yesterday.

In the latest phase II trial of the drug 31 patients were treated at hospitals in Germany and New Zealand. ASA404 treats non-small lung cancer, which is the most common form of the disease, accounting for 80 per cent of all lung cancers. According to the World Health Organisation, lung and bronchial cancer causes 1.1 million deaths a year. Lung cancer is the biggest cause of death from cancer in the US, responsible for 30 per cent of cancer deaths.

Antisoma's drug is designed to stem the flow of blood to tumours to kill them off. Analysts expect it to become a blockbuster drug, as it would be the first treatment to work in this way.

In April, Antisoma signed a £445m deal with the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis to develop the drug. Novartis plans to start enrolling patients for phase III trials, the last stage before market approval, early next year.

Dr Ursula Ney, Antisoma's chief operating officer, said: "These positive results strongly support our earlier trial findings, which showed that adding ASA404 to chemotherapy improves survival in patients with lung cancer."

The findings from the trial will be presented at the World Lung Cancer Conference in Seoul, Korea, next month.

Last month, 15 per cent was wiped off the value of Antisoma after it reported that ASA404 failed in a mid-stage clinical trial for ovarian cancer. Trials showed that the control group showed better survival rates than the treatment itself, and Antisoma dropped further studies into the drug as a treatment for ovarian cancer.

ASA404 is also being tested for prostate cancer.