What happened
Shares of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals (DCPH) were up more than 17% for the week as of Friday at 2 p.m., according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The biotech company's stock closed last week at $13.08, then rose to a high of $16.43 on Friday. The stock is still down more than 7% so far this year.
So what
The company, which focuses on therapies to treat various cancers, reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday before the markets opened. Its sole marketed therapy, Qinlock (ripretinib), led a surge in growth in revenue and earnings per share (EPS).
Deciphera reported revenue of $38.3 million, up 17.4% year over year. All but $1 million of the revenue came from sales of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) therapy Qinlock.
The company reported cash of $389.4 million, enough, it said, to fund operations into 2026, not counting any future milestone payments.
The company had an EPS loss of $0.57, compared to an EPS loss of $0.60 in the same period a year ago.
Now what
Qinlock is approved as a fourth-line treatment for GIST, a type of stomach cancer. The company is working to broaden its label. The therapy is in a phase 3 trial versus sunitnib to treat second-line GIST patients with mutations in the KIT exon 11 and 17/18 genes.
The company has a pipeline with 16 programs. It also reported that it expects phase 1/2 trial results for vimseltinib in patients with tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT), which is a rare, typically nonmalignant tumor of the joints. Deciphera sees vimseltinib as having the potential to be its second approved drug.
Earlier this week, HC Wainwrightreiterated its buy rating for the stock, and Stifel Nicolaus upgraded its rating from hold to buy and boosted its price target from $14 to $20.
