Why Is Verastem (VSTM) Stock Down 62% Today?

Verastem (NASDAQ:VSTM) stock is falling hard on Friday following the release of new clinical trial data for its metastatic pancreatic cancer treatment.

The company is conducting a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of avutometinib plus defactinib in combination with gemcitabine and Nab-paclitaxel. The results were positive and that initially saw VSTM stock rally higher this morning.

However, investors quickly noticed the safety data included in these results. 19 of the 41 patients in the trial suffered from emergent serious adverse events. That includes 11 with grade ≥3 events. Among these were blood bilirubin increase, biliary obstruction, febrile neutropenia, pulmonary embolism, sepsis, anaemia, pneumoperitoneum, septic shock, skin infection, malignant neoplasm progression and vomiting.

John Hayslip, Chief Medical Officer at Verastem, said the following about the clinical trial results.

“Metastatic pancreatic cancer continues to be a challenging cancer to treat and these data support the intent behind the Therapeutic Accelerator Award that we received from PanCAN to develop new therapies faster and more efficiently than in historical studies.”

VSTM Stock Movement on Friday

VSTM stock is experiencing heavy trading on Friday alongside this data. That has more than 10 million shares traded as of this writing. This is a massive surge compared to its daily average trading volume of about 134,000 shares.

VSTM stock is down 61.7% as of Friday morning!

Investors will want to keep reading for more of the most recent stock market stories!

We have all of the hottest stock market news traders need to know about on Friday! Among that is what has shares of Sensei Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:SNSE), Tharimmune (NASDAQ:THAR) and Netcapital (NASDAQ:NCPL) stock moving today. All of this news is available down below!

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On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.