Advaxis Stock Drops As Much As 14% After Company Says Midstage Trial Was Interrupted By Clinical Hold

Advaxis Inc. shares dropped as much as 13.6% in premarket trade before evening out to a 1.5% decline Monday after the company said a clinical hold last year prevented a midstage clinical trial from being completed as designed. The company released preliminary results for the trial prior to the hold, finding that cancer therapy axalimogene filolisbac had an overall survival rate consistent with phase 1 trial results. Both the phase 1 and phase 2 trials had relatively small patient populations enrolled, with 26 patients in the first stage and 24 patients in the second stage. Advaxis said the 37.5% 12-month overall survival rate exceeded the 25% survival rate that could have been expected, results it said "illustrate the promising therapeutic potential" of the treatment, which is intended for patients with persistent or recurrent metastatic cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is one of the top cancers affecting women globally, with about 13,000 new cases likely to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, according to Advaxis. Advaxis shares rose 16.6% over the last three months, compared with a 1.6% decline in the S&P 500 .