Eli Lilly soars 15% after its breast cancer drug shows efficacy where a treatment from Pfizer failed

• Eli Lilly soared 14% on Tuesday after it announced that its breast cancer drug Verzenio was successful in meeting its primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial.
• Verzenio was successful in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer for patients.
• Pfizer announced in late May that its competing drug Ibrance failed a similar trial in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer among patients, potentially boosting doctors' favorability of Verzenio over Ibrance.
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Eli Lilly soared as much as 14% on Tuesday after it announced that its breast cancer drug Verzenio in combination with endocrine therapy was successful in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer for patients in an open-label Phase 3 trial.

Verzenio was originally approved in 2017 for treating certain forms of advanced breast cancer, and its revenue more than doubled to $579 million in 2019.

Verzenio achieved its primary endpoint of invasive disease-free survival, and also demonstrated a significant decrease in the risk of breast cancer recurrence or death compared to the standard therapy alone.

In a similar trial that was halted by Pfizer in late May, Pfizer's competing drug Ibrance failed to meet its endpoint of improving survival rates for breast cancer patients. The win by Eli Lilly, and the miss by Pfizer, may boost doctors' favorability of Verzenio over Ibrance, which could potentially boost sales of Verzenio and elongate its trajectory of growth.

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Anne White, president of Lilly Oncology, said, "[Verzenio trial results represent] a major milestone with the potential to change the paradigm of how early breast cancer is treated ... The fact that these results were achieved early, at the interim analysis, is also exciting because it will help us speed this innovation to the people who need it."

The company plans to submit the data to regulatory authorities before the end of 2020.

After the news was announced, Goldman Sachs reiterated its buy rating with a $186 price target on Eli Lilly, representing potential upside of 15% from current levels.

The bank commented, "with positive monarchE Ph3 data in hand for Verzenio we see upside risk to our LLY estimates ... we reiterate our Buy rating on LLY as the company has a favorable growth profile relative to peers, has limited exposure to near-term loss of exclusivity, significant pipeline optionality, and a 2% dividend yield, which is deserving of a premium multiple."

Shares of Eli Lilly traded up as much as 15.4% to $163.40, while shares of Pfizer traded down as much as 1.9% to $32.72 in Tuesday trades.