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

The Regeneron Pharmaceuticals company logo is seen on a building at the company's Westchester campus in Tarrytown, New York, U.S. Brendan McDermid | 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.