Array BioPharma Marches Higher On Phase 3 Columbus Success

Shares of Array Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ: ARRY) continue its bull run Tuesday, climbing more than 6 percent after surging 81 percent Monday on the heels of its positive late-stage skin cancer trial results.

The study evaluating encorafenib and binimetinib in patients with "untreaded or 1L immunotherapy-exposed BRAF-mutant melanoma" met its primary endpoint.

The study showed significantly improved progression free survival (PFS) compared with vemurafenib, a BRAF inhibitor, alone. The BRAF gene when mutated has the potential to cause normal cells to become cancerous.

In a press release, the company said the median PFS for patients treated with the combination of encorafenib plus binimetinib ("combination") was 14.9 months versus 7.3 months for patients treated with vemurafenib.

Related Link: Array BioPharma Trading At Highest Levels In Over A Year

"Given historical MEKi/BRAFi combo data in BRAFm melanoma, positive Ph3 COLUMBUS data is not a surprise. However, strong PFS benefits with BINI/ENCO combo (vs. prior studies) is a nice surprise (albeit not a head-to-head study), clearly demonstrating adding MEKi to BRAFi augments PFS benefits to BRAFi alone," Jefferies analyst Eun Yang wrote in a note.

"With BINI under FDA review & BINI/ENCO filings in 2017, ARRY would potentially have two drugs on market for melanoma by early 2018," Yang continued.

Yang, who has a Buy rating on Array Biopharma, has increased the price target by $1 to $8.

Investors cheered the trial results, as Array Biopharma shares closed Monday's trading at $6.61 on a heavy volume of 101.06 million shares. The shares opened higher on Tuesday at $7.22 and touched a new 52-week high of $7.27. Currently, they were up 2.42 percent to $6.77 on a volume of 28.20 million shares versus its three-month average volume of 3.50 million.

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