Cancer Breakthroughs Expected at Annual Meeting of Cancer Society

Can shares of Puma (PBYI) Biotechnology rebound? That's one of the big questions on the minds of investors heading into the year's biggest cancer research event, the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, which kicked off Friday in Chicago. Puma's shares sank earlier this month on an initial data release for its breast cancer drug, neratinib, ahead of the meeting. The results fell short of analysts' and investors' expectations, and weighed not only on the stock price but also on the company's potential prospects for a sale. Puma is likely hoping to change investors' minds about the drug's prospects. Separately, investors also will be intensely focused on immunotherapies—drugs that harness the immune system to fight cancer—from Bristol-Myers, Merck, AstraZeneca, Roche and others as well as on a number of targeted therapies for lung, breast and other cancers. RBC Capital Markets analyst Simos Simeonidis said he sees the potential for a rebound in Puma shares coming out of ASCO. "We reiterate our view that neratinib's phase 3 ExteNET data were positive and misread by many in the market following release of the ASCO abstracts two weeks ago," Simeonidis wrote in a May 27 research note, referring to the name of Puma's clinical trial. "We continue to expect that the full data presentation and Puma's investor meeting will help clarify the data." Full results will be presented Monday morning at ASCO, while Puma will host an investor meeting that evening.Puma Biotechnology (PBYI) is reportedly turning away some investors and at least one analyst from a company event scheduled for Monday, citing a lack of space at the hotel ballroom. As an alternative, Puma is offering a webcast of the event. Since the sell off, Puma’s stock price has risen 17% to recently trade at $199.54.