Candel Therapeutics stock jumps as pancreatic cancer treatment shows promise

By Eleanor Laise

Results come after Candel downsized to focus on core assets

Shares of Candel Therapeutics Inc. (CADL) climbed 15% early Friday after the company released new data from a trial of its experimental cancer treatment.

Pancreatic cancer patients who received the treatment, CAN-2409, had a survival rate of 71.4% after two years, Candel said in a release Thursday, compared with 16.7% in the control group after chemoradiation. The estimated median overall survival for people treated with CAN-2409 in the phase 2 trial was 28.8 months, Candel said, versus 12.5 months in the control group.

The news, which sent Candel's stock up more than 280% on Thursday, comes after the company late last year downsized to focus on a couple of core assets, including CAN-2409. Candel said in November that it would lay off 50% of its workforce and prioritize development of CAN-2409 in non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer, while also focusing on an experimental treatment for high-grade glioma.

The Food and Drug Administration in December gave Candel a fast-track designation for CAN-2409 in combination with valocyclovir for treatment of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the most common form of pancreatic cancer. The fast-track program helps speed the development of new drugs that treat serious conditions and address unmet medical needs.

Pancreatic cancer accounts for about 3% of all cancer cases in the U.S. and about 7% of cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.

CAN-2409 is designed to help the body's immune system fight cancer. The treatment delivers a herpes simplex virus gene to a patient's tumor, triggering an individualized immune response.

The immunological changes induced by CAN-2409 suggest that the treatment can "change the balance between the tumor and the patient's anti-tumor immune response, which can convert progressive cancer into a chronic disease associated with improved survival," Candel president and CEO Dr. Paul Peter Tak said in a statement.

Candel shares have climbed 335% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX is up 7.9%.

-Eleanor Laise

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04-05-24 0856ET

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