OncoMed rises as it gets $72.5 million in milestones

Shares of US biotech firm OncoMed Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: OMED) gained 4.9% to $23.10 in mid-morning trading, after it announced the achievement of two milestones payments from Celgene Corp (Nasdaq: CELG).

OncoMed achieved the $70 million safety milestone from Celgene based on an analysis of available Phase Ib and blinded interim Phase II clinical trial safety data associated with the demcizumab (anti-DLL4, OMP-21M18) program.

The data from the pancreatic, non-small cell lung and ovarian cancer clinical trials showed no demcizumab-related Grade 3 or higher cardio-pulmonary toxicities among 155 patients treated with truncated dosing.  Of those, 68 patients have received at least two cycles of demcizumab at the Phase II dose or higher and have been followed for at least 100 days.  OncoMed also achieved a $2.5 million milestone for clinical candidate designation of an undisclosed preclinical immuno-oncology program, “IO#2”. This is OncoMed’s second immuno-oncology program to reach clinical candidate designation, and both programs are advancing in IND-enabling studies.