By Colin Kellaher
Shares of Tempest Therapeutics rose more than sevenfold in premarket trading Wednesday after the clinical-stage oncology company reported positive study results for its TPST-1120 drug candidate in the most common type of primary liver cancer and adopted a shareholder rights plan.
Tempest on Wednesday said new data showed clinical superiority in multiple study endpoints for TPST-1120 combined with the Roche Holdings cancer drugs Avastin and Tecentriq versus the two Roche drugs alone in a global Phase 1b/2 study.
The Brisbane, Calif., company said the data include a confirmed objective response rate of 30% for the TPST-1120 triplet arm, compared with 13.3% for the Avastin/Tecentriq control arm.
Roche is managing the study under a 2021 collaboration, while Tempest retains all product rights to TPST-1120.
Tempest also on Wednesday said its board adopted a limited-duration stockholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill,” with a 10% trigger.
Poison pills are antitakeover measures that can be used to neutralize activist shareholders, flooding the market with new shares and making it more expensive to acquire a controlling stake.
Tempest, noting a “significant and ongoing dislocation” in the trading price of its shares, said the board didn’t adopt the rights plan in response to a specific takeover threat.
Tempest shares, which closed Tuesday at 24 cents after touching a 52-week low of 17 cents during the trading session, were recently changing hands at $1.85 in premarket trading.
Write to Colin Kellaher at [email protected]
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