Breast Cancer is the Leading Killer of Female Cancer Patients and These 4 Stocks Are Working to Fix That

January 14, 2022 - Baystreet.ca


According to a new study comparing the number of cancer diagnoses globally in 2010 and 2019, cancer rates over the decade were up by +26% and breast cancer was the leading cause of cancer-related disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), deaths, and years of life lost (YLLs) among females globally in 2019. According to Research and Markets, the global breast cancer drugs market is expected to grow to $19.49 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 7.1%. This has moved several biotech developers into action, including THESE 4 stocks that require your attention: Roche Holding AG (OTC:RHHBY), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) and AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN).

Roche Holding AG (OTC:RHHBY)

Roche recently kicked in $290 million into a funding round that surpassed $1 billion into liquid biopsy developers Freenome.

"We are happy to support Freenome's innovative approach to early cancer detection," said Thomas Schinecker, CEO of Roche Diagnostics. "We believe blood-based multimodal screening and data-driven medical insights will help deliver personalized healthcare. This investment will be an important step to advance early cancer screening, and we look forward to joining Freenome in this journey."

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Pfizerrecently entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Celcuity, where the pharma giant will provide Palbociclib (Ibrance) for use in a phase 3 clinical study being conducted by Celcuity at no cost to the company.

“We are excited that Pfizer is providing palbociclib for this important phase 3 clinical trial,” said Brian Sullivan, chief executive officer and co-founder of Celcuity. “Our goal is to address the significant unmet need for new therapeutic options for patients who progressed on their first line of treatment for ER-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.”

The phase 3 clinical trial is expected to launch in the first half of 2022 assessing the use of the pan-PI3K/mTOR inhibitor gedatolisib (PF-05212384) in combination with palbociclib and fulvestrant for patients with estrogen receptor (ER)–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer. Celcuity will release further details about the clinical trial following discourse and subsequent feedback from the FDA.

Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY)

Incyte recently gave an update involving its retifanlimab in combination with BriaCell Therapeutics’ lead clinical candidate Bria-IMTTM at the SABCS. Summarized in the update, the overall survival was much higher in the patients in the combination study, suggesting an additive or synergistic effect and supporting the continuation of the study. According to BriaCell’s website, further safety and efficacy data is expected through 2022.

AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN)

Towards the end of 2021, AstraZeneca and partners Daiichi Sankyo announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had validated its Type II Variation Application for trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd; Enhertu) for the treatment of advanced, previously treated HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

Meanwhile, the first patient with HR+, HER2- inoperable metastatic breast cancer was dosed with datopotamab deruxtecan (DS-1062a; dato-DXd) as part of the phase 3 TROPION-Breast01 trial (NCT05104866). The TROP2-directed DXd ADC that is currently being developed by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca is currently under investigation in the global, randomized, open-label trial at a dose of 6 mg/kg vs investigator’s choice of chemotherapy.