Novocure's stock surges after positive results in brain-cancer trial

By Ciara Linnane

The company's medtech device was studied in patients with lung cancer that has spread to their brain

Novocure Ltd.'s stock soared 15% Wednesday after the company announced positive results from a late-stage trial of a medtech device to treat patients with lung cancer that has spread to their brains.

The Swiss-based company said the Phase 3 trial, dubbed Metis, met its primary goal by showing a statistically significant improvement in the time it took for tumors to worsen in adult patients treated with Tumor Treating Fields - known as TTFields - therapy and supportive care, as compared with supportive care alone.

Patients showed a median time to intracranial progression of 21.9 months, compared with 11.3 months for patients treated with supportive care alone.

TTFields are electric fields that target and kill cancer cells. The company's device is attached to a patient's head and sends signals that stop the cell division seen in cancer. The therapy has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is being investigated in many types of cancer, including highly aggressive forms such as glioblastoma and mesothelioma.

Some 298 adult patients were enrolled in the trial and were treated for 16 weeks. The therapy was well tolerated, with sustained quality of life and neurocognitive function, Novocure (NVCR) said in a statement. Supportive care included steroids, anti-epileptic drugs, anticoagulants and pain-control or nausea-control medications.

"Patients with brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer are frequently treated with radiosurgery but face a high likelihood of rapid brain relapse," Minesh Mehta, chief of radiation oncology and deputy director at the Miami Cancer Institute, said in the statement. The Miami Cancer Institute is part of Baptist Health South Florida.

The use of TTFields "significantly delayed time to brain relapse, with associated improvement in quality of life and stable cognition. This is a major benefit and is potentially practice changing," he said.

Patients failed to show statistically significant results for the key secondary endpoints, which were time to neurocognitive failure, overall survival and radiological response rate, however. The company said some secondary endpoints showed positive trends and that a full analysis is being conducted.

The company is planning to submit the data to regulators and will publish the results in a peer-reviewed publication.

Novocure's stock has fallen 74% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 31%.

-Ciara Linnane

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03-28-24 0712ET

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