Clovis' Rubraca Vs. TESARO's Niraparib

Clovis Oncology Inc CLVS's Rubraca (rucaparib) has received accelerated approval from the FDA for monotherapy treatment of advanced ovarian cancer. Despite this head-start, TESARO Inc TSRO's Niraparib seems to be “the likely winner,” Wedbush’s David M. Nierengarten said in a report.

Nierengarten reiterated an Outperform rating on TESARO, with a price target of $139.

How Niraparib Compares

Referring to Rubraca’s approval, Nierengarten mentioned the “potential for earlier usage than 3L in patients is unlikely with this label.” He added that the WAC (Wholesale Acquisition Cost) pricing was $13,740 for a 30-day supply, while the estimated niraparib cost is $12,000 per month.

“We believe the clinical benefit of niraparib demonstrated in all cohorts in the NOVA study, including HRD-negative patients, will lead to approval in OC patients regardless of tumor biomarker status in an earlier line of therapy than Rubraca and without requirement for a companion diagnostic,” the analyst wrote.

Nierengarten believes that Rubraca would have to “clear the high efficacy bar set by niraparib in the maintenance setting” to be considered as a significant competitor and this seems unlikely.

“We also believe the QoL [quality of life] data based on patient-reported outcome surveys being similar for patients on niraparib or placebo allays concerns that patients will choose to forego treatment in the maintenance setting,” the analyst commented.

At Last Check

• Shares of Clovis were up 4.5 percent at $42.30.
• TESARO shares were up 1.79 percent at $129.52.

Image Credit: By MesserWoland [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons