Posted on June 10, 2026 by Scott Johnson in Corporate America

Treating advanced breast cancer

In 1998 my friend Brian Sullivan served as the chairman of our state Republican Party’s platform committee. I think Brian appointed John Hinderaker and me committee members. We wrote the audacious platform that Brian assured us he would get approved at the party convention, as he did. We have been friends for a long time.

In his current business venture, Brian is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Celcuity, a company whose market capitalization is now over $4.5 billion. In successful clinical trials, Celcuity’s product holds the promise of alleviating suffering and extending the lives of women struggling with certain forms of advanced breast cancer. The product is called Gedatolisib. The company announced submission of its new drug application for Gedatolisib to the FDA in a November 2025 press release.

Looking back on 2025, the Star Tribune noted that Celcuity was the runaway winner among Minnesota-based public company stocks in 2025: “In total, the stock is up 663% this year as of its close on Dec. 30 of $99.92.” The stock of the second-place company was up 70.8%.

Last week Brian appeared at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which took place from May 29 to June 2, 2026. It was held in person at McCormick Place in Chicago. It’s the biggest conference of cancer research in the world.

In his presentation Brian discussed the drug’s most recent clinical trial results. In an interview with BiotechTV’s Brad Loncar following his presentation, Loncar explained that the conference saves the most important data for its final presentations (“latebreakers”). Brian’s presentaion was a June 2 latebreaker immediately followed by his interview with Loncar.

If you are an oncologist treating patients with advanced breast cancer, or konw anyone being treated for advanced breast cancer, you may want to watch the seven-minute video posted here by BiotechTV. The headline states: “Celcuity CEO Brian Sullivan discusses the late breaking data for the PAM inhibitor gedatolisib that was just presented at ASCO – doubled the likelihood of survival in HR+/HER2- breast.” The subhead elaborates: “These data were for patients with the PIK3CA mutation. The median PFS for the gedatolisib triplet combo was 11.1 months versus 5.6 months, compared to alpelisib plus fulvestrant.”

Brian has told me about the product and the research underlying his interest in it over the past few years, but I now see he has been talking to me in the equivalent of babytalk. I don’t understand much of what he told Brad Loncar. I can deciper the acronyms “KOLs” (key opinion leaders) and “PFS” (progression-free survival). I can look up the meaning of “hazard ratio” and other terms that are key to the discussion. However, the interview is over my head. I only understand that the drug has produced extraordinary results in clinical trials and that FDA approval seem to be imminent, with a target date of July 17, 2026.

I don’t seem to be able to embed the whole interview and BiotechTV has only posted the final two minutes on X. It is by far the least technical as well as the least interesting part of the interview, although the X post also links to the full interview.

These last two minutes take up the impact of the announded clinical trial results on the company’s stock price. In the full interview, Brian’s excitement over the meaning of the most recent results comes through loud and clear and it’s what I want to emphasize here for those to whom the results may be of interest.

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