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Iovance Biotherapeutics rides high after FDA grants Breakthrough Therapy designation for its cervical cancer treatment

Last updated: 02:05 24 May 2019 AEST, First published: 01:04 24 May 2019 AEST

magnifying glass over 'cancer'
LN-145 treats cervical cancer in patients who have progressed to or past chemotherapy

Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:IOVA) stock jumped after the company announced Wednesday that its cervical cancer drug received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the Food and Drug Administration.

The move was accompanied by a note from Baird analyst Madhu Kumar, who reiterated an Outperform rating and $34 price target on the shares, which is more than double the biotech’s Wednesday close.

Shares jumped at Thursday's open but have since cooled, recently trading 2.3% higher to $17.

READ: Iovance Biotherapeutics stock flies on positive data for tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte technology

LN-145, which treats cervical cancer in patients who have progressed to or past chemotherapy, is one of two Iovance drugs that the Baird analyst believes can submit Biologics License Applications by the end of 2020.

A BLA allows a biologic product to be introduced into interstate commerce.

"Combined with lifileucel in post-PD-1 metastatic melanoma, for which we expect success, we now consider it reasonable that IOVA's TIL platform could have two drugs that are BLA-ready by [the end of 2020]," Kumar wrote.

Both drugs make use of the California-based company’s tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte technology. The other, called lifileucel, is a treatment for metastatic melanoma, a late-stage skin cancer.

Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel

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