By Eric Fetters
Herald Writer
BOTHELL — Apparently unimpressed with the latest clinical trial results for Sonus Pharmaceuticals’ lead drug, investors have driven the company’s stock price down 38 percent this week.
On Monday, the Bothell-based company presented data on Tocosol paclitaxel, its experimental cancer drug, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
"There was nothing horribly negative," said Scott Smallman, an analyst with the Seattle office of US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. "But there really wasn’t anything that was blockbuster to come out of that meeting."
In this case, no big news was seen as bad news.
Additionally, Smallman added, this week’s jittery mood in the stock markets has heavily hit the biotech sector.
The Sonus sell-off started Monday, actually before the results were widely announced, with a 14.7 percent fall from $4.70 to $4.11. On Tuesday, the stock fell another 10.2 percent. Wednesday saw a 13.6 percent decline, with the stock closing at $3.11 a share.
With the latest downturn, Sonus’ stock price has fallen 63 percent so far in 2002.
Sonus’ most developed product is a formulation of paclitaxel, which is the active ingredient in Taxol, the world’s leading cancer drug. Results presented in Orlando showed 41 percent of patients in the Phase 1 study responded to the drug, with nine of the 14 responding patients seeing their tumor progression halted, according to Sonus. In late March, the company began its first set of Phase 2 studies to validate the Phase 1 results.
Sonus is not the only cancer drug company in the area to see a sudden change in its stock this week.
Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics Inc. watched its stock fall 26 percent on Monday when news of its study results to the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s meeting came out.
On Wednesday, Cell Therapeutics’ stock price fell to just above $8 a share before the company’s board of directors announced a stock repurchase program. That move sent the price back to $8.96 at the market’s close, not far from the company’s 52-week low of $8.80 set on Monday.
Seattle Genetics of Bothell also presented results in Orlando of its latest drug tests, but its stock has declined only slightly in recent days.
Meanwhile, Bothell’s Northwest Biotherapeutics, a cancer drug company that didn’t release any new clinical results, enjoyed a contrarian boost in its stock. The company’s share price rose 17 percent on Wednesday alone.
You can call Herald Writer Eric Fetters at 425-339-3453
or send e-mail to fetters@heraldnet.com.
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