a href="https://cortellis.thomsonreuterslifesciences.com/ngg/qsearch/Exelixis%0D" target="_blank">Exelixis Inc. shares (NASDAQ:EXEL) climbed as much as 14 percent Friday on better-than-expected first quarter earnings, halved R&D costs and the hope that cabozantinib, which fizzled in a pivotal study for prostate cancer, would blaze brighter in METEOR, a phase III study in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) reporting top-line data by the end of the second quarter or early in the third quarter.