Advaxis Stock Jumps 10% After FDA Okays Clinical Trials For Amgen-partnered Cancer Drug

Advaxis Inc. shares surged 10.6% in pre-market trade Monday after the company said the Food and Drug Administration would allow its ADXS-NEO, a cancer immunotherapy drug partnership with Amgen , to proceed to clinical trials. ADXS-NEO's approach targets neoantigens, which are seen as a promising avenue of cancer drug development, and the drug is only the second of this type with an Investigational New Drug application accepted by the FDA, according to a company spokesperson. Advaxis said it plans to start a phase 1 trial for the drug in multiple tumor types later this year. Amgen shares slumped 0.2% in pre-market trade Monday. Shares of Advaxis have risen 3.5% over the last three months, and shares of Amgen have surged 24.2% over the last three months, compared with a 7.7% rise in the S&P 500 .