Roche Shares Rise on Positive Results From Clinical Trials

Shares in Roche Holding AG (ROG.EB) rose Monday morning after the company announced positive results from two major phase 3 trials, one for its hemophilia treatment Hemlibra and the other for Tecentriq, a cancer therapy.

The results follow the Swiss pharmaceutical company's third phase 3 trial of Hemlibra as a treatment for hemophilia A, an inherited disorder in which a person's blood fails to clot properly. This was the first of its phase 3 trials to look at the treatment in a broader population of hemophilia A patients, rather than only in those who had developed resistance to a standard therapy.

Roche also released a statement saying that a phase 3 trial of Tecentriq used in combination with Avastin and chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for people with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, showed reduced chances of the disease worsening or death, thereby meeting one of the two primary endpoints of the study. Roche also said that initial observations related to its other primary endpoint, overall survival, were "encouraging" but that the data were not yet "fully mature," with the next analysis expected in the first half of 2018.

At 1054 GMT, shares traded at EUR241.60, up 5%.

Analysts at Berenberg said today's Hemlibra results were better than anticipated and that Hemlibra is now poised to "become a major product" in the hemophilia A market. The fact that the trial produced "no new signals" from a safety point of view was also encouraging, the bank said.

Regarding the positive clinical data from the Tecentriq trial, analysts at Bryan, Garnier & Co. said it was "a great day for Roche" and highlighted the fact that even though Roche had identified a specific subgroup, the results were seen across the board.

Write to Sonia Amaral Rohter at sonia.amaralrohter@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 20, 2017 06:23 ET (11:23 GMT)