I asked a seasoned biotech business development executive, a guy who spends a lot of time digging deep into cancer drugs for potential licensing deals, what he thought about the experimental prostate cancer drug acquired by Endocyte (ECYT). Since announcing the deal on Monday morning, Endocyte’s stock price has quadrupled.
“PSMA is a target proven over and over as ineffective in treating prostate cancer due to significant off-target toxicity. Anyone looking at this can pretty much stop there,” he told me.
PSMA stands for prostate-specific membrane antigen. It’s a protein found on prostate cancer cells that biotech and pharma drug developers have long tried to exploit as an effective drug target. Success rate to date: Zero.
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A cure for any cancer would end a lot of business. Nothing to see here folks…but speculate away to only the benefit of the business leaders.