Why Is Small-Cap Cancer Focused Vincerx Pharma Stock Plummeting On Tuesday?

On Monday, Vincerx Pharma Inc VINC presented preliminary Phase 1 data for VIP236 and updates on pipeline progress at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024.

VNC-236-101 is a Phase 1 dose-escalation study with monotherapy VIP236 for metastatic tumor patients who have exhausted all standard therapy options. 

• Fifteen patients have been dosed to date on the once-every-three-weeks (Q3W) schedule:
• The Q3W schedule is well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) in any patients, and no patients have discontinued VIP236 due to an adverse event. 
• No severe or life-threatening diarrhea has been observed, validating the purposeful design of VIP236’s optimized camptothecin payload.
• Seven patients have achieved objective stable disease, including tumor reduction. Four patients remain on the study, with the longest-treated patient for 168 days.

VNC-943-101 is a Phase 1 dose-escalation study with monotherapy VIP943 for CD123+ acute myeloid leukemia, B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia, or myelodysplastic syndromes. 

• VIP943 is administered once per week. 
• No DLTs occurred in Cohort 1 and 2. Four patients have been enrolled in Cohort 3 (0.7 mg/kg) and are undergoing DLT assessment.
• VIP943 PK data shows very little free payload in circulation, consistent with the favorable safety profile observed preclinically and clinically.

Vincerx will present additional Phase 1 data for VIP236 and VIP943 on or around the 2024 European Hematology Association Annual Meeting in June 2024.

Vincerx also reported preclinical experiments applying the next-generation effector chemistry of its VersAptx platform to the antibodies of approved antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), Trodelvy and Enhertu, demonstrating the potential to improve tumor toxicity of ADCs by orders of magnitude.

• In in vitro tumor models, Vincerx’s sacituzumab-legumain-KSPi ADC had a 20-fold improvement in tumor toxicity compared with Trodelvy (sacituzumab-govitecan). 
• The company’s trastuzumab-legumain-KSPi ADC demonstrated an 8-fold increase in tumor toxicity compared with Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan).

Price Action: VINC shares are down 73.30% at $1.27 on the last check Tuesday.

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