Oncology company’s board adopts poison-pill plan
Shares of Tempest Therapeutics Inc. TPST, +3972.53% soared nearly 4,000% on Wednesday after the company released study results for its investigational cancer treatment TPST-1120 in patients with liver cancer.
The drug candidate, in combination with the Roche Holding AG RHHBY, +0.63% treatments Tecentriq and Avastin, showed clinical superiority as a first-line treatment for unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma, a common type of liver cancer, Tempest said in a release Wednesday.
Patients treated with the triple therapy had median progression-free survival of seven months, versus 4.3 months for those treated only with Tecentriq and Avastin, Tempest said.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is an aggressive cancer that researchers expect to become the third leading cause of cancer death by 2030.
Tempest on Wednesday also announced a limited duration stockholder rights plan, or “poison pill,” exercisable only if an entity offers to acquire 10% or more of the company’s outstanding common stock.
The plan was not adopted in response to a specific takeover threat, Tempest said in a release, but is intended “to enable all of our stockholders to realize the long-term value of their investment.”
After Wednesday’s gains, Tempest shares are up 750% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX is up 14%.