Advaxis shares gain as FDA lifts clinical hold on its drug trial

Shares of the biotech company Advaxis Inc. ADXS, -8.27% surged 68% in premarket trade on Friday after the Food and Drug Administration lifted a clinical hold on the company’s phase 1/2 study for a cancer drug combination. The clinical hold was put in place in March after a patient death following “acute respiratory failure after nine months of combination therapy,” the company said; it will now implement new measures to detect these types of events early. The trial is testing a combination of Advaxis’ axalimogene filolisbac, a listeria-based immunotherapy, and Astrazeneca’s durvalumab AZN, +4.29% for patients with advanced, recurrent or refractory cervical cancer and HPV-associated head and neck cancer. Company shares have dropped 29.5% over the last three months, compared with a 5.4% rise in the S&P 500 SPX, +0.87% and a 2.3% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.91%

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