Phase II TASKIN Data Show 61.3% 12-Month Survival in Refractory Colorectal Cancer
XBIT is trading near its 52-week low of $2.09 (6.1% above the low).
Summary
XBiotech's anti-IL-1α antibody vilamakitug (Natrunix) hit the pre-specified primary efficacy bar in the randomized Phase II TASKIN trial in refractory metastatic colorectal cancer: 61.3% of patients (49/80) in the drug arm were alive at 12 months versus 55.7% (44/79) on placebo plus chemo. The headline number is modest and the formal endpoints were not statistically significant — median PFS was 5.9 vs 5.6 months (p=0.42) and 12-month TSF 31.2% vs 20.3% (p=0.17). The real story is the exploratory right-sided tumor subgroup (n=37), where vilamakitug cut the risk of death 62% (HR 0.38, p=0.047) and strategy failure 61% (HR 0.39, p=0.014). Management frames that biomarker-anchored subset as the path to registrational development. For a micro-cap with roughly $109.5M in cash and a widening quarterly loss, this is the most substantive clinical readout in some time and gives the program a defined direction, though the small subgroup and investigator-sponsored design limit how much weight the data can carry. Next step is a registrational trial design; no timeline was disclosed.
At the time of this announcement, XBIT was trading at $2.22 on NASDAQ in the Life Sciences sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $64.6M. The 52-week trading range was $2.09 to $3.44. This news item was assessed with positive market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: GlobeNewswire.