Approval for pancreatic cancer treatment boosts Novocure

Novocure (Nasdaq: NVCR), developer of a technology for treating cancer by means of electric fields, announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its product for the treatment pancreatic cancer. The company’s share price is up by more than 24%. In the past year (including the current rise), Novocure’s share price has fallen 36%. Its market cap at the current price is $1.5 billion.

Novocure was founded on the basis of the invention of the late Prof. Yoram Palti, the treatment of cancer by focusing electric fields on the growth, which prevents the cells in the growth from dividing. The company already sells products for treating certain brain and lung cancers.

According to its preliminary results, Novocure had revenue of $655 million last year, 8% more than in 2024. The company has not yet reported its 2025 profit, but up to now the company has generally posted an operating loss and a net profit. Novocure has $448 million cash, after repaying a $561 million bond in November.

The product now approved is intended for patients with advanced local pancreatic cancer, and the treatment is given in combination with chemotherapy. The company says that this is the first new treatment for this group of patients in decades.

Approval was granted after a trial on 571 patients, who were divided into two groups. The patients treated with the Optune Pax device together with chemotherapy had a median overall survival period of 16.2 months, versus 14.2 months for the control group, an improvement of two months, which is considered statistically significant. The survival rate after a year was 68% for the group given the combined treatment versus 60% for the group treated with chemotherapy only.

Perhaps more interesting is that the time that passed before pain became severe lengthened substantially with the combined treatment, to 15.2 months, compared with 9.1 months. According to the company, patients reported a better quality of life in several additional ways.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers and is the third most frequent cause of death from cancer in the US.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on February 12, 2026.

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