Promising results for 2 Roche drugs

Roche Holding shares rose this week after experimental medicines for cancer and hemophilia, both developed by Roche unit Genentech of South San Francisco, succeeded in much-anticipated patient trials, boding well for the Swiss drugmaker’s ability to grow.

A cancer treatment called Tecentriq delayed the worsening of lung tumors when given together with chemotherapy and an older Genentech medicine, Avastin. Meanwhile, a drug known as Hemlibra succeeded in a late-stage study of the biggest group of hemophilia A patients, putting the company in a position to shake up the $10 billion global market for treating the blood disorder.

Both trials are key metrics of whether Roche, the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, can rebuild its portfolio as its best-selling treatments face cheaper copycat rivals for the first time. The company is entering a three-year transition period as it tries to push forward new treatments, Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan told investors last month.

“Roche has delivered a best-case scenario,” Jeffrey Holford, an analyst with Jefferies LLC in London, wrote in a note on Monday. Investors had been skeptical about both studies, according to Holford.

The shares rose 6.6 percent in Zurich, their biggest increase since March 2. Roche has returned 8.8 percent this year, lagging the 19 percent increase in the Swiss Performance Index. The company’s American depository receipts also rose.

The lung cancer trial, dubbed ImPower 150, is a milestone as Roche races drugmakers including Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca in the field of immune therapy: drugs that free the body’s own defenses to attack tumors. How best to combine the new medicines — whether with existing chemotherapy or other immune treatments — has been an open question. In a strategic wrinkle, Roche tested its candidate Tecentriq with Avastin, a combination that could prop up the older medicine’s sales as well.

Bristol-Myers and Merck are trying to expand use of their drugs, although Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda has been considered the leading medicine for previously untreated lung cancer. The recent withdrawal of a European regulatory application for Keytruda has raised concerns about its growth potential.

Still to come in the first half of next year are results to show whether Roche’s new cocktail can help patients live longer. But showing it can extend the time before tumors get worse is an important first step.

The results for Hemlibra, also known as emicizumab, suggest that the medicine could compete in the broader hemophilia market after winning Food and Drug Administration approval last week for a smaller patient group. Hemlibra’s previous success was in inhibitor patients, people who develop resistance to replacement therapy for factor VIII, the clotting protein that, when it’s missing, results in bleeds.

The Roche hemophilia drug is priced at $448,000 a year for long-term treatment. That’s far below the cost of other prophylactic treatment for inhibitor patients, but competitive with medicines for the larger group of people studied in the latest trial, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Full results of both studies will be presented at upcoming medical meetings.