01:13 PM EDT, 05/15/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Health care stocks rose Thursday afternoon, with the NYSE Health Care Index and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) each adding 0.6%.

The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) climbed 1.6%.

In corporate news, Immutep ( IMMP ) shares jumped past 11%. The company said Thursday its investigational drug eftilagimod alpha, or efti, combined with Merck's (MRK) Keytruda and doublet chemotherapy achieved a response rate of 60.8% and disease control rate of 90.2% in people with non-small cell lung cancer in an investigator-initiated trial.