Palm Beach, FL 1/3/12 (StreetBeat) -- Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: AVEO), maker of an experimental medicine for kidney cancer, declined the most in four months after data from a late-stage trial missed investors’ “ultra-high expectations,” an analyst said.Aveo dropped 6.2 percent to $16.13 at 9:37 a.m. New York time, after earlier sinking to $16.10 for the biggest intraday decline since Sept. 9. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s shares rose 18 percent in 2011.
Aveo’s tivozanib helped patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma live for 11.9 months without their disease progressing, compared with 9.1 months for those on Nexavar, a medicine sold by Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer AG (BAYN), Aveo said today in a statement. Investors may have expected progression-free survival of at least 13 months on tivozanib, Jason Kantor, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in San Francisco, wrote today in a research note.
“The data looks good from both a regulatory and commercial perspective,” Kantor wrote. “However, it may have slightly missed the high efficacy hurdle set by the Street.”
Aveo’s medicine was “well-tolerated,” showing a safety profile similar to earlier results. The 517-patient study was from the third and final phase of trials generally required for regulatory approval. Aveo and partner Astellas Pharma Inc. (4503), of Tokyo, plan to apply for approval in the U.S. and Europe this year, they said in the statement.
Renal cell carcinoma forms in the lining of the small kidney tubes that filter blood and remove waste products, according to the National Cancer Institute. There were an estimated 60,920 new cases of kidney cancer in the U.S. in 2011, with 13,120 deaths, the institute said on its website.
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