By Mackenzie Tatananni
Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals sank in premarket trading Monday after a late-stage trial for the biotech's experimental skin cancer drug missed its main goal, prompting a flurry of downgrades across Wall Street.
The Tarrytown, N.Y.-based biotech late Friday provided an update on a Phase 3 trial for fianlimab, an immunotherapy targeting advanced forms of melanoma. The drug didn't show a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival, Regeneron said, meaning it didn't delay disease progression or death.
Researchers were testing a combination of fianlimab and Regeneron's Libtayo immunotherapy versus Merck's blockbuster cancer treatment, Keytruda. The trial enrolled 1,546 patients who were divided into four groups, taking either a high dose of the combination, a low dose of the combination, Keytruda with a placebo, or Libtayo with a placebo.
Shares tumbled nearly 12% in premarket trading Monday. Futures tracking the benchmark S&P 500 ticked down 0.4%.
Citi Research analyst Geoff Meacham cut his rating on the shares to Neutral from Buy and lowered his price target to $700 from $900. Although a high-dose combination of fianlimab and Libtayo showed improvement over Keytruda, the result didn't reach statistical significance, Meacham noted.
The analyst pointed out that Dupixent, an immunology drug co-developed with Sanofi, is launching in new indications and selling better than expected, while Libtayo remains an under-appreciated leader in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Still, with fianlimab sales removed from Citi's model "and no meaningful pipeline readouts on the horizon," Meacham is struggling to find "incremental positive catalysts" to justify a premium multiple.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 18, 2026 07:28 ET (11:28 GMT)
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