Arvinas Holding Company LLC's (ARVN) stock soared 6.5% in pre-market trading on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, driven by investor optimism ahead of the anticipated release of Phase 3 top-line data for its lead product candidate vepdegestrant (vepdeg) in metastatic breast cancer.

Vepdeg, an oral PROTAC (proteolysis-targeting chimera) protein degrader designed to target and degrade the estrogen receptor, is being evaluated in the Phase 3 VERITAC-2 trial. The study compares vepdeg's efficacy and safety to fulvestrant in patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who have previously received and progressed on a combination of CDK4/6 inhibitors and endocrine therapy.

If the VERITAC-2 trial meets its primary endpoints, the positive results could support the first-ever regulatory approval of a PROTAC degrader and mark Arvinas' transition to a commercial-stage company. The company expects to announce the top-line data in the first quarter of 2025 and present the full results at a medical congress later in the year.

Beyond vepdeg, Arvinas has a robust pipeline of promising PROTAC degraders targeting various cancers and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease. The company's innovative PROTAC platform has enabled the development of orally bioavailable degraders capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, showcasing the potential of targeted protein degradation.

Arvinas is also in a strong financial position, with over $1 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, which should be sufficient to support its operations into 2027. The company's collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer aims to establish vepdeg as a best-in-class ER-targeting backbone therapy in metastatic breast cancer.