Why Exelixis, Inc. Rose Higher Today

Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL) is up 24% at 12:21 p.m. EDT after announcing that the phase 3 Celestial trial met its primary endpoint of helping liver cancer patients taking Cabometyx live longer than those taking placebo.

Separately, the biotech also said the Food and Drug Administration accepted its marketing application to expand Cabometyx's label to first-line kidney cancer and gave the application a priority review with a goal of completing the review by Feb. 15, 2018. That's good progress, but widely expected, so most of today's jump is due to the Celestial result.

Image source: Getty Images.

Source: Fool.com