Epizyme Stock Down 6% After Worse Than Expected Mid-phase Trial Results

Epizyme Inc. shares dropped 6.0% in pre-market trade Monday after its non-Hodgkin lymphoma drug's phase 2 trial results were worse than expected. Though the company's chief medical officer, Peter Ho, said the phase 2 results were consistent with tazemetostat's positive phase 1 trial results, others noted the phase 2 trial's lower objective overall response rate, or 28%, relative to the phase 1 trial, or 56-60%. RBC Capital Markets analyst Simos Simeonidis, who said he was able to review the data with the company, said that despite lower efficacy numbers, "this is [an] early look in the trial and responses do get better with time," and noted the drug's good safety numbers, continuing to rate the company outperform. Epizyme is slated to review the trial results during a lymphoma conference in Colorado Springs Monday. The company's shares rose 4.4% in the last three months, compared with a 1.1% rise in the S&P 500 .