Oncothyreon Plunges On Drug Fail; Analyst Slashes Target

Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY) plunged Tuesday after the company's tecemotide lung cancer treatment failed to show any effects in a trial in Japan.Merck KGaA has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the drug and informed Oncothyreon it would discontinue the Phase I/II study.Tecemontide is one of four drugs in Oncothyreon's pipeline and Wedbush's Gregory Wade said the lack of tecemotide results in Japan raises doubts about the company's ONT-10 cancer drug.Both tecemotide and ONT-10 stimulate the immune system to recognize and attack cells that express MUC1, a protein found on non-small cell lung, breast, colon, kidney, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate cancers. ONT-10 is currently being evaluated in Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with solid tumors.Wade maintained an Outperform rating on Oncothyreon but cut his target to $3 from $6 a share. Oncothyreon traded recently at $2.29, down 17.8 percent.