UK's Antisoma bounces after saying it has enough cash to support cancer drug trials

UK cancer drug developer Antisoma saw its shares jump 7.4% to 6.98 pence this week, after the firm announced that it has sufficient financial resources to take it beyond the results of clinical trials for two lead cancer drug candidates, after the recent disappointment with its once potential blockbuster ASA404, the lung cancer drug that it was developing with Swiss drug major Novartis, failed in a late-stage trial despite showing promise in earlier studies (The Pharma Letter March 29).

Antisoma's chief executive, Glyn Edwards, said: 'We have two promising cancer drugs, AS1413 and AS1411, both of which we expect to report key trial data during the next year. Having taken measures to reduce our costs, we expect our cash resources to take us well past these trial results.' Mr Edwards added 'We are no longer anticipating further revenues from the ASA404 program, and have therefore taken steps to reduce our cash utilization and ensure that our funds take us comfortably through key clinical data on AS1413 and AS1411. We announced on March 29 that our unaudited cash position as of the end of February 2010 was £45.1 million ($65.6 million).

AS1413 - rapid recruitment continues in Phase III trial