Ipsen Trades Higher After EU Approval of Kidney-Cancer Drug Combination

   By Cecilia Butini 
 

Shares in French biopharmaceutical group Ipsen rose on Wednesday after the company said the European Commission has given the green light to the company's drug Cabometyx in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb Co.'s Opdivo for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer.

At 0900 GMT, Ipsen shares traded 4.4% higher at EUR73.05.

The company said the EU approval is based on results from a phase-3 trial named CheckMate-9ER, whose primary endpoint was the median progression-free survival in patients receiving the drug combination.

Progression-free survival--which is understood as the time after treatment that a patient can live without the disease worsening--was observed as doubling in patients receiving the drug combination compared with those receiving another, previously approved drug.

EU approval means the drug combination can be marketed for renal cell carcinoma in EU member states, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland, while the U.S. already granted approval in January, Ipsen said.

Write to Cecilia Butini at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2021 05:23 ET (09:23 GMT)

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