Incyte Stock: Shares Have Taken a Beating in 2018 – Here’s Why | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Incyte's lead drug Epacadostat, which was being tested in combination with other cancer immunotherapy drugs, failed in trials, causing a significant drop in the company's stock.

Key Insights

• 🥺 Incyte's lead drug, Epacadostat, failed to demonstrate the expected efficacy in combination with other cancer immunotherapy drugs.
• 🏑 The disappointing results had a significant effect on Incyte's stock and impacted other companies in the field.
• 💝 Incyte had invested heavily in late-stage trials but will need to rely on other approved products to recover from this setback.

Transcript

Shannon Jones: Let's turn our attention to our third and final stock. Todd, this one, for me, there was so much writing on this stock. The company is Incyte, ticker INCY. It's not so much the stock that's scary, it's what happened earlier this year with a drug that literally every investor had been watching, especially those that have been followin... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: What was Incyte's plan for Epacadostat?

Incyte aimed to combine Epacadostat with drugs like Keytruda and Opdivo to enhance their efficacy in treating cancer.

Q: Why did Incyte invest in multiple late-stage trials?

The early data on combining Epacadostat with Keytruda looked promising, prompting Incyte to initiate multiple late-stage trials to reshape cancer treatment.

Q: How did the trial results impact other companies?

Bristol Myers discontinued its IDO program, and another company called NewLink saw a significant decline in its stock price since it was also working on IDO inhibitors.

Q: Can Incyte recover from this setback?

Despite the disappointment, Incyte has approved blockbuster products on the market, like Jakafi, which can help mitigate the impact of the failed trials. It also has a pipeline of other products that could contribute to a recovery.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Incyte's lead drug, Epacadostat, was being tested in combination with popular cancer immunotherapy drugs like Keytruda and Opdivo.

• The trials showed that the drug combination did not deliver the expected efficacy, leading to disappointment and a decline in Incyte's stock.

• Incyte had invested heavily in late-stage trials for Epacadostat and had high hopes for its success, but the results were discouraging.