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Array's Stock Jumps on Positive ASCO Abstracts

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The run up of stocks before the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference has begun if Array BioPharma's stock jump is any indication.

The run up of stocks before the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference has begun if Array BioPharma’s (ARRY) stock jump is any indication. Wednesday evening thousands of cancer drug research abstracts were released in advance of ASCO’s conference June 1 to June 5.

In after-hours’ trading, Array’s stock jumped and held the gain after the market opened on Thursday. Array had closed on Wednesday at $3.65 and opened Thursday at $3.95. By the afternoon the stock had dipped back to $3.88, which is still a 6.30% increase over the previous day.

The data from Array that caused the stock price increase was from encouraging results for selumetinib in Phase II trials in non-small cell lung cancer. The drug, licensed to AstraZeneca (AZN), increased survival when combined with docetaxel to 9.4 months compared to 5.2 months for docetaxel alone.

More than a third of the patients responded to selumetinib while none responded to docetaxel alone. Also patients showed progression-free survival time of 5.3 months compared to 2.1 months.

Array also released abstracts for its experimental melanoma drug. The abstract reports on early results of a Phase II study of MEK 162 in patients with cutaneous melanoma with either the BRAFV600 mutation or NRAS.

Among 29 patients with a mutation in the BRAF gene were treated with one confirmed and six unconfirmed partial responses, and nine patients with stable disease. Of the 13 patients with the mutation in the NRAS gene, there were two confirmed and one unconfirmed partial responses, and four patients with stable disease.

Year-to-date Array’s stock is up by 68.98% and its 52-week range is from $1.58 to $3.80. TheStreet.com is predicting that Array’s stock could trend toward $4 to $4.25 in the near future. The site has named Array one of “7 Stocks Under $10 Making Big Moves.”

The information contained in this article should not be construed as investment advice or as a solicitation to buy or sell any stock.

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