Shares of Clovis Oncology soared over 15% in morning trading Monday after the pharmaceutical company received approval for its new PARP inhibitor, “Rubraca,” which treats advanced ovarian cancer in women.

“Today's approval is another example of the trend we are seeing in developing targeted agents to treat cancers caused by specific mutations in a patient's genes,” said Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Rubraca, also known as rucaparib, has been approved by the FDA to treat women with a specific form of advanced ovarian cancer who have already completed at least two chemotherapies and whose tumors have a gene mutation called “deleterious BRCA.”

Healthy BRCA genes are involved in repairing damaged DNA and typically work to prevent tumor and cancer development, but mutated forms of these genes can actually cause the disease. Rubraca works by blocking an enzyme involved in repairing DNA, which helps prevent cancerous cells with mutated genes from being repaired.

According to the National Cancer Institute, approximately 15% to 20% of the estimated 22,280 women who will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year have the BRCA gene mutation. Clovis Oncology’s new drug will provide a new option for thousands of these patients.

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