Things are Looking up; AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) breast cancer drug shows positive results
AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) announced on Wednesday that its experimental breast cancer treatment, camizestrant, helped extend survival without disease progression in patients with an advanced form of the illness during a late-stage clinical trial.
The company’s US-listed shares rose 1% in premarket trading Wednesday.
According to the company’s interim analysis, camizestrant, when combined with a standard treatment designed to block proteins that drive tumor growth, showed a positive impact on progression-free survival as a first-line therapy.
The trial, known as "SERENA-6," evaluated the combination in patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer carrying a specific genetic mutation.
AstraZeneca said the drug’s safety profile remained consistent with what is already known for each medicine, with no new safety concerns identified and very few patients discontinuing treatment.
Analysts project that camizestrant could generate $1.5 billion in sales by 2030.
Bank of America analysts estimate a peak sales potential of $6 billion for camizestrant across the SERENA-6 and SERENA-4 trials. They note that SERENA-4 is a first line (1L) trial requiring success in patients without ESR1 mutations, with data expected in the first half of 2026.
The analysts also caution that results from SERENA-6 may not directly translate to SERENA-4, as SERENA-6 focuses on patients who have already developed ESR1 mutations, while SERENA-4 is strictly a first-line study. However, they view the safety data from SERENA-6 as “supportive” for SERENA-4.
“As a reminder, SERENA-6 is the first of 7 big Phase III (PIII) reads we flag for the next 18 months, with five game-changing PIII reads,” they added.
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Renewed Energy; Ring Energy (NYSE American: REI) Announces Accretive Bolt-On Acquisition
Ring Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: REI) (“Ring” or the “Company”) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Central Basin Platform (“CBP”) assets of Lime Rock Resources IV, LP (“Lime Rock”) for $100 million, subject to customary closing adjustments. The purchase price is comprised of $80 million of upfront cash consideration, a $10 million deferred cash payment due nine months after closing, and up to 7.4 million shares of Ring common stock. The transaction has an effective date of October 1, 2024, and is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
Lime Rock’s CBP acreage is in Andrews County, Texas, where the majority of the acreage directly offsets Ring’s core Shafter Lake operations, and the remaining acreage is prospective for multiple horizontal targets and exposes the Company to new active plays. The transaction represents another opportunity for the Company to seamlessly integrate strategic, high-quality assets with Ring’s existing operations and create shareholder value through improved operations and synergy capture. The Lime Rock position has been a key target for Ring as the Company has historically sought to consolidate producing assets in core counties on the CBP defined by shallow declines, high margin production and undeveloped inventory that immediately competes for capital. Additionally, these assets add significant near-term opportunities for field level optimization and cost savings that are core competencies of Ring’s operating team.
Mr. Paul D. McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “This is a unique opportunity to capture high-quality, oil-weighted assets that generate significant free cash flow in a privately negotiated transaction. Today’s announcement is another example of our proven strategy to create value for our shareholders through accretive M&A. This acquisition not only increases our scale, but it also enhances our portfolio of high-return drilling locations and accelerates the Company’s ability to pay down debt. We look forward to quickly integrating the assets into our existing operations and applying our extensive expertise to optimally develop the inventory of horizontal targets afforded by the transaction.”
Mr. McKinney continued, “For the Lime Rock transaction, we expect to run the same playbook as our highly successful Founders’ acquisition announced in 2023, which has outperformed nearly all our initial underwriting assumptions. Since closing, Ring has increased the Founders’ production base by greater than 40%, lowered the Founders’ per Boe lifting costs by approximately 20%, and reduced our Company’s debt balance through free cash flow generation to more than cover the cash purchase price. We plan to achieve similar success on the Lime Rock assets. Our team has a proven M&A track record as Lime Rock will mark Ring’s fourth acquisition since 2019, totaling approximately $940 million of assets. We believe the benefits of consolidation are compelling when structured appropriately, and we strongly view this as a value-enhancing transaction for Ring shareholders that will better position the Company for future opportunities and long-term success.”
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