Newtown Square Biotech Loses Nearly Half Its Value After Lung Cancer Drug Fails Key Test
Shares of ArriVent BioPharma crashed about 47 percent to roughly $12 after its lead lung cancer drug failed the main goal of a Phase 3 trial, the company’s worst single-day decline on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The trial, called FURVENT, tested firmonertinib as a first-line treatment in nearly 400 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer carrying EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations, a difficult-to-treat form of the disease. Patients on the higher dose went a median 11 months without their cancer worsening, compared with 9.5 months for chemotherapy, but the difference was not statistically significant.
“While firmonertinib’s latest results were consistent with previous clinical studies, they didn’t show a meaningful improvement” over chemotherapy, chief executive Bing Yao said in the company’s announcement.
The result stung partly because the control group did unexpectedly well. Patients on chemotherapy survived a median 9.5 months without progression, well above the seven months analysts had assumed, Truist noted in cutting its price target to $18 from $45.
There were bright spots in the data. About 60 percent of patients on the higher dose saw their tumors shrink, compared with 33 percent on chemotherapy. The drug already holds Breakthrough Therapy and Orphan Drug designations in the United States and is approved in China for several EGFR-mutant lung cancer uses.
ArriVent, based in Newtown Square in Delaware County, went public in 2024 and has no product on the market. It ended June with $373.1 million in cash and investments, which management says funds operations through 2028, and it continues testing the drug in a separate Phase 3 trial alongside earlier-stage programs for gastrointestinal and gynecologic cancers.
The collapse is a reminder of how much of the region’s biotech economy rides on single clinical readouts. One trial result erased roughly half the company’s market value in a single session.