Insider Trading Movement: Incyte Corporation (INCY)

Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) insider has recently participated in insider trading activity. Director, BAKER JULIAN bought 678,488 shares for $47,973,373 via one transaction Feb 16. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 18,958,070 shares in total, priced at $1,411,428,311.5 as of Wednesday. Another notable insider trading was done by the same insider on Feb 12. BAKER JULIAN acquired 922,530 shares at an average price of $65.83 for a total of $18,158,080. Moreover, this insider carried out a buy of 208,677 shares at $67.14 each on Feb 12. The transaction amounted to $18,346,124. The insider also bought 14,010,424 shares for $18,346,124 through one transaction Feb 11.

The stock has experienced a total of 21 insider trades in the past three months. These trades include 5 sell activities and 16 buy trades. Furthermore, over the past 12 months, the stock was traded 80 times by insiders. In 56 of these trades, the insider was a seller while an employee of the company was the buyer in just 24 instances.

Incyte Corporation (INCY) on February 16, 2016 announced that it will present at the following investor conferences during the month of March:

Cowen and Company 36th Annual Health Care Conference on Monday, March 7, 2016 at 1:20 pm (EST) in Boston; and

Barclays Capital Global Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 9:30 am (EDT) in Miami

The presentations will be webcast live and can be accessed within the Investors section of www.incyte.com under Events and Presentations. Investors interested in listening to the live webcasts should log on before the start time in order to download any software required.

Additionally, on February 11, 2016 (INCY) announced its decision to discontinue the Phase 3 study (JANUS 1) of ruxolitinib or placebo in combination with capecitabine for the second-line treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. The decision to stop the study was made after a planned interim analysis of JANUS 1 demonstrated that ruxolitinib plus capecitabine did not show a sufficient level of efficacy to warrant continuation.

Following these results, and the previously announced interim analysis of the Phase 2 sub-study of ruxolitinib or placebo in combination with regorafinib in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and high C-reactive protein (CRP), ongoing Incyte-sponsored trials of ruxolitinib in solid tumors will be discontinued, including the Phase 3 JANUS 2 study in pancreatic cancer, the Phase 2 sub-study in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and low CRP and the Phase 2 studies in breast and lung cancer. Incyte’s dose finding study of INCB39110 (a selective JAK1 inhibitor) as first-line treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer, will also be discontinued. Incyte will work with investigators to appropriately conclude these studies in a manner consistent with the best interest of each patient. Data from these studies will be analyzed and shared with the scientific community over the coming months.

Ongoing studies of ruxolitinib and selective JAK1 inhibitors in hematology indications will continue. Ongoing studies of selective JAK1 inhibition in solid tumor indications that are based on different hypotheses will also continue. These include a series of studies evaluating INCB39110 in combination with either pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1 antibody), epacadostat (Incyte’s IDO1 inhibitor), or INCB50465 (Incyte’s PI3Kδ inhibitor) to assess the therapeutic utility of JAK1 inhibition based on its effects on the tumor microenvironment. Additionally, the potential impact of JAK1 inhibition on improving the benefit of targeted therapies will be investigated via a Phase 1/2 study of INCB39110 plus osimertinib, AstraZeneca’s next generation EGFR inhibitor.

“The hypothesis to evaluate the therapeutic utility of JAK inhibition in patients with solid tumors and high levels of systemic inflammation was initially supported by a subgroup analysis of the randomized, double-blind Phase 2 RECAP study, which suggested a survival benefit in patients with high levels of CRP. As a result, we and the broader scientific community believed further study in pancreatic cancer and other solid tumors with evidence of systemic inflammation was warranted. Unfortunately, the larger studies did not confirm this hypothesis,” said Rich Levy, M.D., Chief Drug Development Officer of Incyte. “Moving forward, we remain focused on our strategy to invest in innovation and in our broad development portfolio, as we seek to deliver new medicines to patients with cancer and other diseases.”