Thinly traded nano cap ASLAN Pharmaceuticals (ASLN -56.2%) craters on almost a 5x surge in volume, albeit on turnover of only 106K shares, in reaction to unsuccessful results from the first part of its Phase 2/3 clinical trial, TreeTopp, evaluating lead candidate varlitinib in patients with biliary tract cancer (BTC).
The study failed to achieve the primary endpoints of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall response rate (ORR). Specifically, median PFS in the treatment group was 2.83 months compared to 2.79 months for placebo. ORR was 9.4% versus 4.8% for control.
On a positive note, no new safety signals were observed.
One ray of hope is a subset of BTC patients who received the combination varlitinib and chemo agent capecitabine in a second-line setting. This group showed “improved efficacy.”
The data analysis is continuing.
Varlitinib is an orally available, reversible, small molecule pan-HER inhibitor. An investigator-initiated Phase 2 study in second-line HER1/HER2-positive gastric cancer is in process.
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