.png)
15 hours ago
5
Shares of French biotech Abivax tumbled 32% after it reported fresh data on its lead asset, a drug for ulcerative colitis, that showed a potential cancer risk in patients.
The medicine met its endpoints of demonstrating a clinically meaningful efficacy and a remission rate of about 40% for both doses tested, but also showed there were three cancer cases among patients taking the higher dose.
"[The] cancer signal complicates matters," a Jefferies analyst said. "Even if unrelated noise, we think the overhang will be real, especially considering absence of other value-inflecting data events over the next [year]."
The trial results, published late Monday, were from a maintenance study in which Abivax assessed the effect of the drug, obefazimod over 44 weeks. It comes after the results of a late-stage trial for an ulcerative colitis medicine mid-2025, beating even the most optimistic expectations.
With analysts describing the experimental drug as a potential best-in-class treatment for ulcerative colitis. Abivax is also testing the medicine for Crohn's disease, opening it up to a multi-billion-dollar market for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
The company has been positioned as a prime takeover target, with unconfirmed speculation that big pharma has its eyes on the clinical-stage biotech led by CEO Marc de Garidel.
The stock gained nearly 1,700% in 2025, but shares had fallen 7% coming into Tuesday trading.
Abivax shares year-to-date.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
