Positive data at ASH meet fires up cancer drugmakers

Aptose Biosciences

09/12/2019 19:57

** A host of drugmakers gain after reporting promising data
at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in
Florida
    ** Merck & Co's  MRK.N  deal for ArQule  ARQL.O  dominates
headlines; ARQL also presents positive data from early-stage
trial of ARQ 531, its precision medicine for blood cancer; ARQL
shares more than double  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nBwbq5hrWa  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N28J33A
    ** Forty Seven  FTSV.O  shares also more than double as
ongoing early-stage study shows experimental drug superior to
chemotherapy
    ** Fate Therapeutics  FATE.O  soars 41% on animal trial
results; starts human trial enrollments for its off-the-shelf,
stem cell-derived, cancer treatment
    ** Aptose Biosciences  APS.O , TG Therapeutics  TGTX.O  gain
over 20% on positive data from trials testing their drugs, that
are rival to AbbVie Inc's  ABBV.N  and Johnson & Johnson's
 JNJ.N  Imbruvica
    ** Safety concerns raised in data presentations weighed on
some others: Precision BioSciences  DTIL.O  slumps 48.6% after
two cancer patients relapse within two months of taking its
drug, while Blueprint Medicines  BPMC.O  slips 8.3% as a patient
reports cognitive side effects in its immune cell disorder
therapy trial
    ** ASH meeting runs from Dec.7 to Dec.10

 (Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru)
 ((Ruhi.Soni@thomsonreuters.com;))