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Ignyta Raises $160M on Cancer Drug’s Promise

San Diego drugmaker Ignyta Inc. is piggybacking off recent positive press by raising $160 million in a new stock offering. The fresh infusion of cash will go toward developing the company’s cancer drug.

Ignyta is developing anti-cancer drugs using genetic testing — and its own diagnostic lab — to match the right drug with the right patients.

The company is studying a drug called entrectinib and how it works in patients with certain cancers. Cancer varies greatly from person to person, so drugmakers develop treatments based on various tumor types and the genetic mutations that activate cancer. Entrectinib is the perfect example of what those in the industry call “precision medicine,” as it’s meant to treat a small patient pool with more accuracy than other blanket treatments (like chemotherapy).

Earlier this month, Ignyta made its way into several headlines on major biotechnology news sites following an announcement that its cancer drug was performing well in human trials. The drug was being tested in cancer patients whose tumors have the NTRK or ROS1 mutations.

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The current go-to cancer drug for these patients is a Pfizer product called Xalkori (designed by San Diego scientist Jean Cui). That drug brought in $561 million in revenue for Pfizer in 2016.

But Ignyta’s drug, entrectinib, might perform better than Xalkori.

Results of a 32-patient study of the drug, presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan, show a best case scenario: the medicine shrank tumors in 79 percent of patients and kept working for a median 28.6 months. That’s about 10 months longer than Xalkori did in separate clinical trials.

Lung cancer doctors are impressed, and the results best what financial analysts say could be a best-case scenario for Ignyta’s stock, which has already increased 219 percent year-to-date (as of Oct. 24).

The company expects to request FDA approval of the drug in the second half of 2018.

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