Shares of Nuvalent (NASDAQ: NUVL) were up more than 27% as of 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday after the company reported preliminary phase 1/2 trial data for a therapy to treat advanced ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other solid tumors. The stock reached a 52-week high of $61.70, and so far this year is up more than 93%.

Nuvalent is a clinical-stage biotech that focuses on precise cancer therapies by using proven kinase targets. On Wednesday, the company said that in a trial with 57 subjects, its NVL-655 was generally well tolerated with few adverse effects, and the drug drew at least a partial response in 45% of the ALK-positive NSCLC patients -- that is, patients whose cancer cells have a mutation in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene.

The drug is developed to overcome the challenges of treatment resistance, brain metastases, and off-target adverse events connected to the central nervous system. In many cases, ALK-type cancers can mutate, making them harder to treat with existing therapies. NVL-655 is able to bypass the brain-blood barrier and can target compound mutations that often occur when a tumor progresses, the company said.

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Source Fool.com