Company Novocure And its partner Zai Lab announced today (Monday) the success of a Phase II trial that examined the combined effect of the electric fields through which Novocure treats together with chemotherapy, for the treatment of gastric cancer. The trial met its primary goal, and the company said there may be a first-line treatment (i.e. the first treatment offered to patients) for this type of cancer.
Novocure is one of the most successful Israeli biomed companies, and it is traded on the NASDAQ at a value of $ 8.3 billion, and in 2021 it recorded revenues of $ 535 million from its cancer treatment products. In the past year, the company’s share has lost about 65%, Significant negative announcements from the company, but mainly from the investment sentiment in the biomed field, which first flew the company up so that it overtook Teva and was for a moment the largest Israeli company in terms of market value in all areas, and then crashed the company down at the same speed. The largest Israeli biomed on the Nasdaq, after Teva, and one of the only companies that managed to bring significant medical care to the market and significant sales independently.
Today Novocure mainly treats brain cancer, and some type of lung cancer. Its products are in clinical trials to treat a number of other cancers. In the current trial, 50% of patients achieved some improvement. Half of the patients did not see a worsening of their condition for 7-8 months. After one year, 72% of caregivers were alive. Although the trial was conducted this time without a control group, compared to historical data, it is an improvement when in the existing chemotherapy treatment, only 41% -45% of patients experience some improvement, half of the patients worsen after 6-9 months, and after a year only 48% of patients survive.
Every year, about a million new cases of gastric cancer are diagnosed worldwide, half of them in China. The current experiment was conducted in China, hoping to get approval there. In the United States, the number of new patients with this disease is about 26,000 a year.
In addition to the two Novocure products on the market, the glioblastoma brain cancer product and the lung cancer product, the company has several products in advanced clinical trials: ovarian cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and brain metastases of cancers that begin in other organs. .
In the first quarter of this year, the company reported revenue of $ 137.5 million. This is a 2% increase over the same period, evidence that the company is starting to exhaust its existing markets and its significant growth further depends largely on the success of additional products. Novocure noted that during 2022, it expects growth of only 2% -5% compared to the near term, however it does estimate that there is an opportunity for further adoption of its product in the field of brain cancer in the market, and for growth from this product.
On this revenue, the company posted a gross profit of 80%, and the company posted a loss of $ 4.6 million, due to the R&D and marketing costs which are still very high relative to its operations. Additional products may allow the company to earn in parallel with the high R&D expenses it is expected to continue to record.