By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – NuCana stock (NASDAQ:NCNA) climbed 22% in Wednesday’s premarket trading as the Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked the company’s experimental drug for treatment of biliary tract cancer.
The drug, acelarin, is currently being evaluated in a phase-III study for the first-line treatment of patients.
The FDA's announcement means that company and regulator will now stay in constant touch throughout the entire drug development and review process. This will ensure quick resolution of questions and issues to eventually result in earlier drug approval and access by patients, assuming the drug meets FDA norms.
A drug is fast tracked when no previous treatment exists or when the proposed solution has proven to be better than the available therapy.
The biliary tract comprises the gallbladder and interconnecting ducts responsible for the transport of bile from the liver to the gallbladder and small intestine. Approximately 178,000 new cases of biliary tract cancer are diagnosed each year worldwide, with more than 18,000 of those diagnoses in the U.S.