Boston, MA 05/01/2014 (wallstreetpr) – While positive quarterly earnings remain an important aspect for any company, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) sprang up for an altogether different reason, which is its press release illustrating its success in Phase 3 trial that outweighed its earnings report today. The release relates to the success story of the company’s drug, MM-398, which aims at treating Pancreatic cancer.
Way Paved For FDA Approval
Apart from posting an upbeat first quarter performance,Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK)the company made another significant disclosure relating to its cancer drug, MM 398 (irinotecan encapsulation injection). The company noted that the drug has attained its primary objective as it recorded statistically remarkable improvement in overall survival rate in patients suffering from pancreatic cancer. The drug, when combined with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin achieved an overall survival rate of 6.1 months, representing a 1.9 month increase against the control arm.
However, the drug if administered as a monotherapy failed to achieve its primary endpoint. As monotherapy, the drug attained overall survival of 4.9 months as against 4.2 months in the control arm. Though there was a marginal improvement but does not hold much of the significance statistically. Moreover, the drug as a monotherapy posed higher level of side effects in comparison with the combination regimen.
The clinical trial has already been accepted for an oral presentation at the “European Society for Medical Oncology World Conference” on subject of Gastrointestinal Cancer, which is scheduled to take place on Barcelona, Spain in between June 25-28, 2014. Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) is optimistic with the outcome of the trial and hence anticipates going ahead with submitting a New Drug Application to the U.S. FDA for the combination therapy in 2014. MM-398 has already been designated with an Orphan Drug Status, implying a longer market exclusivity for it.
An Upbeat First Quarter
Another development reported by Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) is its first quarter earnings, which surpassed the analysts’ forecasts. The company presented net loss of $27.8 million, which is ($0.27) on a basic and diluted per share basis as against $28.3 million net loss or $0.29 per share in the previous year’s quarter. The revenue of the company came in at $13.01 million for the quarter. The numbers compare against the analyst projection of ($0.30) earnings per share on revenue of $12.02 million.
