Why ORIC Pharmaceuticals Stock Is Crashing Today

Shares of ORIC Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ORIC) were crashing 31.1% as of 11:05 a.m. ET. The steep decline came after the company announced it was discontinuing the development of its experimental cancer drug ORIC-101.

It's not unusual for a drugmaker to cancel an early-stage program. That's especially the case with oncology candidates. Nearly 4 in 10 cancer drugs in phase 1 testing advance into phase 2 testing, based on historical data analyzed by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

However, the discontinuation of a candidate in phase 1 testing is really bad news for a biotech stock when that candidate is the lead program. That was the case for ORIC with the halting of development of ORIC-101.

Source Fool.com