Shares of Loxo Oncology (LOXO) jumped in morning trading after the biotech company released data in abstracts in anticipation of the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting that is being held June 1-5 in Chicago. The data showed that its experimental LOXO-292 cancer drug shrunk tumors in nearly 70% of patients regardless of where their cancer originated. Meanwhile, Jounce Therapeutics (JNCE) said it is planning to unveil data from a trial evaluating JTX-2011 monotherapy and in combination with Bristol-Myers' (BMY) nivolumab, which is marketed as Opdivo.

WINNER: According to preliminary data from an abstract released on Wednesday, Loxo Oncology's LOXO-292 drug, a highly selective RET inhibitor, shrunk tumors in almost 70% of patients regardless of cancer origination. LOXO-292 is an oral and selective investigational new drug in clinical development for the treatment of patients with cancers that harbor abnormalities in the rearranged during transfection kinase. According to Loxo, the drug was well-tolerated and had "marked antitumor activity in patients with RET-altered cancers, including those with resistance to prior treatments." Blueprint Medicines (BPMC), which is developing a drug that rivals LOXO-292, plunged this morning after certain of Loxo's ORR figures were said by analysts to have topped Blueprint's previously released figures from a past conference. Blueprint will present two abstracts at ASCO supporting plans for rapid development of avapritinib, a selective KIT and PDGFRa inhibitor, in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors and systemic mastocytosis.

LOSERS: Meanwhile, an abstract was released for Jounce Therapeutics' ICONIC trial, which is comparing JTX-2011 on its own and in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo in ICOS-positive tumors. The abstract published online reflects data as of January 27 and updated results will be presented on June 2. Jounce said it has met its target enrollment for the Phase 1/2 trial in combination cohorts across gastric cancer, triple negative breast cancer, head and neck squamous cell cancer and nonsmall cell lung cancer. Elizabeth Trehu, Jounce's chief medical officer, commented that "the preliminary data from patients across multiple solid tumor types enrolled in the ICONIC trial show that JTX-2011 is well-tolerated alone and in combination with nivolumab and has demonstrated evidence of biologic activity and tumor reductions in heavily pre-treated patients who have failed all available therapies." In addition, she added that a potential surrogate biomarker of response has been identified that "may help to guide JTX-2011 development." Another ASCO loser this morning is Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR), which released abstracts that included updated data from the Phase 1/2 PIVOT study evaluating NKTR-214 plus Bristol-Myers' Opdivo in patients with advaned solid tumors, which showed an overall response rate of 52% in melanoma and disease control rate of 78%.

ANALYST COMMENTARY: Stifel analyst Stephen Willey raised his price target on Loxo Oncology to $190 from $145, telling investors that the LOXO-292 data should further distance the candidate from other competitive RET inhibitors. Willey noted that the ORR of 52% reported for the 46 evaluable patients harboring RET-altered tumors tops the 46% ORR previously-reported for competitor Blueprint Medicines' BLU-667 at AACR. Jounce was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo by analyst Jim Birchenough following the "underwhelming" JTX-2011 data, saying that the results were "not competitive with other investigational drugs." JPMorgan analyst Jessica Fye said Nektar's NKTR-214 update was not definitive as it relates to the ultimate profile for the product, telling investors that management emphasized in advance that follow up would be limited for the new patients in the abstract, and this was "abundantly evident" with 22 of the 30 Phase II patients having had only one scan. While the limited follow up in the abstract was well-telegraphed, Nektar shares trading modestly lower today would not be surprising, Fye wrote.

PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, Loxo Oncology is up over 21% to $169.36, while Jounce Therapeutics is down 32% to $12.06. Blueprint Medicines is lower by about 8% and Nektar Therapeutics is down 8.5%.