Shares of Cullinan Oncology Inc. CGEM, +6.87% shot up 15.2% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the biopharmaceutical company said its CLN-081 was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of non-small cell lunch cancer. A BTD expedites the development and review of drugs for the treatment of serious conditions, in which preliminary clinical evidence indicates the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over currently available therapies. “The updated data from our ongoing Phase 1/2a study in a larger number of patients have demonstrated a high response rate with durable responses and encouraging progression free survival in heavily pre-treated patients,” said Cullinan Chief Executive Nadim Ahmed. The stock, which closed at a record low of $15.36 as recently as Dec. 16, has dropped 28.1% over the past three months through Monday, while the iShares Biotechnology ETF IBB, -0.16% has slipped 2.1% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.64% has gained 11.5%.
