Shares of
CTI BioPharma Corp.
CTIC
were down 3.5% on Monday after the company announced top-line data from the PRE-VENT study, which evaluated pacritinib/standard of care versus placebo/standard of care in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19, including those with and without cancer. The study was recently amended to a phase II study.
Data from the same showed that treatment with pacritinib/standard of care did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in the proportion of patients, who progressed to invasive mechanical ventilation and/or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or death by day 28 versus placebo/standard of care — the primary endpoint.
Though pacritinib was generally well-tolerated, it failed to demonstrate a clinical benefit in treating severe COVID-19 infection.
Following the disappointing results, the company decided to stop the further development of pacritinib as a treatment of severe COVID-19.
Shares of CTI BioPharma have plunged 14.3% so far this year compared with the
industry
’s decline of 15.5%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
We remind investors that pacritinib, which is an investigational oral kinase inhibitor, is CTI BioPharma’s sole product candidate. In June 2021, the FDA accepted the new drug application (NDA) for pacritinib as a treatment for myelofibrosis patients with severe thrombocytopenia.
With FDA granting a priority review to the NDA, a decision from the regulatory body is expected on Nov 30, 2021.
We note that CTI BioPharma has no approved product in its portfolio at the moment. Therefore, the successful development of pacritinib remains critical for the company’s long-term growth.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
CTI BioPharma currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same sector are
Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
INFI
,
Avenue Therapeutics, Inc.
ATXI
and
Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
GLMD
, all carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
Infinity Pharmaceuticals’ loss per share estimates have narrowed 1.7% for 2021 and 1.6% for 2022 over the past 60 days. The stock has soared 52.4% year to date.
Avenue Therapeutics’ loss per share estimates have narrowed 22.2% for 2021 and 73.6% for 2022 over the past 60 days.
Galmed Pharmaceuticals’ loss per share estimates have narrowed 7.7% for 2021 and 5.7% for 2022 over the past 60 days.
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