Boulder-based ‘s shares jumped after the company said early Wednesday that a Phase 3 clinical trial for its cancer drug binimetinib was successful.
The company said the drug extended the time it took the cancer to grow or spread for people with advanced NRAS-mutant melanoma, a particularly deadly form of the skin cancer.
In the randomized 402-person trial, those receiving binimetinib had a progression-free survival rate of 2.8 months versus 1.5 months for those in the trial who took the currently used dacarbazine treatment.
Shares, which recently traded at their lowest levels in more than a year, rose 32 percent to $5.06 to in premarket trading. Shares closed Wednesday up about 20 percent at $4.62.
Phase 3 clinical trials are typically the last phase before a drug gets approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Array plans to submit binimetinib for regulatory approval for NRAS mutations in the first half of next year.
There are projected this year to be 74,000 new melanoma cases and nearly 10,000 deaths. The NRAS mutations occur in approximately 15 percent to 20 percent of patients.
