Why Shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics Dropped Thursday
Shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: IOVA) fell more than 13% on Thursday. The biotech company, which specializes in using tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapies to fight cancer, has seen its shares drop by more than 25% so far this year, hitting a 52-week low of $4.41 on Thursday.
Iovance has seen its shares drop for three consecutive days. The real driver is that competitors Seagen and Genmab announced earlier this month positive top-line data from a phase 3 trial for Tivdak to treat recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. That could hurt the chances for Iovance therapy Lifileucel getting approval to treat the same condition. Lifileucel is also being looked at to treat melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In response to the news, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded its price target for Iovance from $27 to $26 on Wednesday.
The drop seems excessive considering that Lifileucel has a decent chance of getting approval to treat advanced melanoma. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently accepted the company's Biologics License Application (BLA) for Lifileucel and granted the drug priority review with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target date of Nov. 25.
Source Fool.com
