Stockwinners Market Radar for March 11, 2018 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

19:47 EDT Immutep enters clinical trial collaboration, supply agreement with Merck - Immutep Limited announced that it has entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck (MRK) to evaluate the combination of Immutep's lead immunotherapy product candidate eftilagimod alpha with Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda in a new clinical trial that will evaluate the combination in several different solid tumours. The planned Phase II clinical trial, referred to as TACTI-002, will evaluate the safety and efficacy of this novel immunotherapy combination in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck cancer, or ovarian cancer. The TACTI-002 clinical trial will be a Phase II, Simon two-stage, non-comparative, open-label, single-arm, multicentre clinical study. Up to 120 patients across the three indications are planned to be treated in medical centres in Europe and the United States with the trial expected to commence in the second half of 2018.

17:05 EDT Janssen says Invokana 'significantly reduced' cardiovascular death risk in study - Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceutical says results of a new analysis showing that Invokana "significantly reduced" the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure in patients with type 2 diabetes at high CV risk. The results showed canagliflozin was associated with a reduction in risk of CV death or HHF by 22%, fatal or hospitalized heart failure by 30%, and HHF alone by 33%, the company said. The benefit of reduced risk of CV death or HHF was 39% greater in patients with a prior history of heart failure, compared to the 13% without heart failure, at baseline.

15:39 EDT Disney's 'Black Panther' stays atop box office with $141.1M in worldwide sales - comScore (SCOR) announced the official worldwide weekend box office estimates for the weekend of March 11, as compiled by the company's theatrical measurement services. Disney's (DIS) "Black Panther" topped the weekend with $141.1M worldwide and $41.1M in the U.S. Disney's " Wrinkle In Time" came in second with $39.6M worldwide and $33.3M in the U.S. 21st Century Fox's (FOXA) "Red Sparrow" with $23.9M in worldwide sales, but fourth in the U.S. at $8.2M.

13:59 EDT Savara says Phase II Indie study of Aironite did not meet endpoints - Savara announced results from the Indie study of Aironite evaluating the use of inhaled inorganic nitrite for symptom relief in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The study did not meet its primary endpoint of improvement in peak exercise capacity assessed by cardiopulmonary exercise testing, or its secondary endpoints. "We would like to thank Dr. Borlaug, the Duke Clinical Research Institute, as well as the Heart Failure Clinical Research Network for their tireless efforts in conducting the study," said Rob Neville, chief executive officer of Savara. "These results were obviously disappointing, but we hope the study will nevertheless serve to increase the understanding of the disease mechanisms in HFpEF, and perhaps help develop other treatment concepts for this difficult clinical condition. Savara's core business focusing on the treatment of orphan lung diseases is unaffected by the results in the INDIE study, and will remain the main value driver of the company." Aironite is an investigational product that was added to Savara's pipeline as part of Savara's acquisition of Mast Therapeutics in April 2017, and the Indie study was one of two investigator sponsored Aironite studies in patients with HFpEF initiated prior to the merger. Following the negative outcome of the Indie study, Savara does not plan to support any new development of Aironite. Shares of Savara closed Friday down 28c to $10.98.

07:42 EDT Johnson & Johnson unit says ECG monitoring patch can detect AFib earlier - Janssen Pharmaceutical of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) says results of a new home-based clinical trial showing that a wearable continuous electrocardiogram monitoring patch can identify people with asymptomatic atrial fibrillation earlier and more efficiently than routine care. One-year findings from the investigator-initiated study, mHealth Screening To Prevent Strokes, done in collaboration with Scripps Translational Science Institute, Aetna (AET) and iRhythm Technologies (IRTC), were presented yesterday at the American College of Cardiology's Scientific Session. In the study, 1,738 patients underwent continuous ECG monitoring using a wearable patch over a four-week period, divided into two two-week intervals. For each participant enrolled, two matched patients were selected, totaling 3,476 patients in the observational control group; these patients received routine care, which included regular visits to a primary care physician to address general health issues. The primary endpoint was the time to first diagnosis of AFib. At one year, researchers found: AFib was newly diagnosed in 6.3% of patients wearing the ECG monitoring patch compared to 2.3% in the control group receiving routine care; Of the 109 patients diagnosed in the ECG monitoring patch group, 65 were found to have AFib through the ECG patch with the remainder diagnosed in the clinical setting; The majority of patients diagnosed with AFib had a burden of AFib with 4.3% having persistent AFib ; Besides AFib episodes, 70 patients in the ECG monitoring patch group were found to have potentially actionable arrhythmias; Approximately 5.4% of patients wearing the ECG monitoring patch initiated anticoagulant treatment compared to 3.4 % in the control group.