Regeneron drops after skin cancer treatment misses late-stage trial goal

May 18 (Reuters) – Shares of Regeneron fell 11.8% premarket on Monday after the company’s experimental treatment missed the main goal in a late-stage trial in patients with advanced melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

The drugmaker’s fianlimab-cemiplimab combination did not reach statistical significance in improving progression-free survival (PFS), a measure of how long patients live without their advanced melanoma worsening.

Advanced melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer that can spread rapidly to other parts of the body, making it harder to treat.

The study tested fianlimab and Regeneron’s approved drug cemiplimab, sold under the brand name Libtayo, as a first-line treatment.

The combination treatment showed a numeric improvement of 5.1 months in median PFS when compared with Merck’s Keytruda, but the difference did not reach statistical significance.

“These results are the worst-case scenario, ” said Evercore analyst Cory Kasimov, adding that while the fundamental impact is relatively limited at this point, sentiment would likely weaken further.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)