Radius (RDUS) Announces Positive Data On Breast Cancer Drug

Radius Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:RDUS) announced encouraging results from an ongoing phase I study on pipeline candidate elacestrant (RAD1901) in patients suffering from estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer.
RAD1901, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), is being evaluated for potential use as an oral non-steroidal treatment for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer at high doses.

Radius Health’s share price shows that the company has outperformed the Zacks classified Medical Drugs industry year to date. The stock declined 7.7% compared with the industry’s gain of 5.7%.

As of the cut-off date of Apr 28, 2017, the fully enrolled study treated 40 patients at the 400 mg dose. The patients are all pretreated ER+, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer patients. The objective response rate (ORR) was 23% in heavily pre-treated patients with advanced ER+ breast cancer. In the 400 mg patient group with mature data, median PFS was 4.5 months and clinical benefit rate at 24 weeks was 42%. In fact, 38% of these patients previously received Faslodex, 40% received Ibrance (palbociclib) or another CDK inhibitor, 50% had an ESR1 mutation. It should be noted that 15 of the 40 patients remained on treatment as of the cut-off date.

Currently, Radius Health is evaluating RAD1901 in a phase I FES-PET study in patients with ER+, HER2-negative advanced breast cancerIn addition, the company entered a collaboration agreement with Novartis (NYSE:NVS) to explore RAD1901 in combination with Novartis’ LEE011 (Kisqali), a CDK 4/6 inhibitor, and BYL719 (alpelisib), an investigational phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor.

Radius Health, Inc. Price

Radius Health, Inc. Price | Radius Health, Inc. Quote

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

Radius Health carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the health care sector include VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) and MEI Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEIP) sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

VIVUS’ loss per share estimates narrowed from 50 cents to 39 cents for 2017 over the last 30 days. The company posted positive earnings surprises in all of the four trailing quarters, with an average beat of 233.69%.

MEI Pharma’s estimates narrowed from loss per share of 1 cent to gain per share of 1 cent for 2017 over the last 30 days. The company posted positive earnings surprises in three of the four trailing quarters, with an average beat of 66.56%.

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