Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

Bad News this Week for Biotech Deals?

 

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D

 

Last week in biotech ( 3/7-3/11/2016) had a plethora of disappointing stories related to biotech drug development and hits to biotech investing and VC.  Since October of 2016 the biotech index has lost 35% to today (see Biotech ETFs Hit 52-Week Lows: Time to Buy?) however were the hit back in October a signal of some of the listed events below (as shown on Biospace News) and includes:

•  an long-time biotech startup with failure of mesothelioma trial who has struggled in the past
• multiple clinical trial failures forces the de-listing of a NASDAQ company (other biotechs this year had similar problems)
• more problems with drug development for Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy

GlaxoSmithKline dumps Five Prime’s cancer drug in the midst of Phase I

March 11, 2016 | By Damian Garde

GSK gave Five Prime a 180-day notice that it’s nixing its license to the company’s FP-1039, which is designed to block the spread of cancer by interrupting protein signaling. The decision follows GSK’s January move to stop developing FP-1039 in squamous non-small cell lung cancer due to the rise of immuno-oncology therapies from Merck ($MRK), Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) and others, citing a “change in treatment paradigms.”GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is cutting ties with Five Prime Therapeutics’ ($FPRX) in-development cancer therapy, backing out in the middle of a mesothelioma trial.

Now GSK is set to abandon a drug it inherited through its $3 billion acquisition of Human Genome Sciences in 2012, leaving Five Prime to go it alone in an ongoing Phase Ib study testing FP-1039 against mesothelioma. Five Prime said it plans to work with GSK to complete enrollment in the study, adding that it “continues to be encouraged” by the drug’s potential in mesothelioma.

Embattled Bay Area XOMA  (XOMA) Terminates Gevokizumab Trials, Slashes Headcount by 50%

3/11/2016 6:39:17 AM

March 11, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

BERKELY, Calif. – Troubled XOMA Corp. (XOMA) is terminating half of its workforce after a late-stage failure of its experimental drug gevokizumab for treatment of pyoderma gangrenosum, the San Francisco Business Times reported this morning.

Following the announcement, Xoma’s stock is down this morning about 5 percent, trading at 91 cents per share as of this writing.

Xoma said it is interested in divesting itself of gevokizumab. In a statement, the company said several companies have approached Xoma about acquiring the drug. Gevokizumab binds to interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), a pro-inflammatory cytokine. Xoma said it will make all information about the drug and study information available to potential buyers. Gevokizumab has had a troubled history with Xoma. The company has halted several trials with the drug for various diseases, including diabetes and a blinding eye disease, the Times reported. In 2014, Xoma was forced to stop testing gevokizumab as an arthritis treatment after the drug did not show significant benefit against placebo after a six-month period.

Struggling Eleven Biotherapeutics (EBIO) Gets Delisting Notice from Nasdaq After Back-to-Back Clinical Trial Failures

3/10/2016 6:07:38 AM

March 10, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

With one piece of bad news after another, Cambridge, Mass.-based Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc. (EBIO) filed a Form 8-Kwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, addressed a delisting notification it received from the Nasdaq on Mar. 3.

The Nasdaq informed the company that its stock dropped below $1 a share, and that the stockholder equity didn’t comply with the $5,000,000 minimum stockholders’ equity requirement. As a result, it has 180 days to comply with Nasdaq rules.

On Jan. 10, the company announced that its Phase III clinical trial of EBI-005 (isunakinra) for severe allergic conjunctivitis did not meet its primary endpoint.

In May 2015, the company reported that its drug, EBI-005, for moderate to severe dry eye disease, failed to prevent damage to the cornea or reduce eye pain in comparison to the control group.

In a January statement, Abbie Celniker, president and chief executive officer of Eleven Biotherapeutics, said, “We are disappointed that isunakinra failed to meet its primary endpoint, and based on these overall results we see no immediate path forward in allergic conjunctivitis. Our efforts will be focused on submitting an investigational new drug application (IND) for EBI-031 in diabetic macular edema in the first half of 2016.”

EBI-031 was designed for intravitreal delivery using the company’s AMP-Rx platform. The drug blocks both free IL-6 and IL-6 complexed to the soluble IL-6 receptor (IL-6R). The compound is being developed to treat diabetic macular edema (DME) and uveitis.

DMD Setback Prompts Sarepta (SRPT) to Shutter West Coast Location and Consolidate to Massachusetts, 30 Jobs Gone

3/9/2016 6:13:13 AM

March 9, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Cambridge, Mass.-based Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) announced yesterday that it was shuttering its research-and-development manufacturing facility in Corvalis, Ore. Most of the employees there are expected to move to Sarepta’s facilities in Andover and Cambridge, Mass. About 30 people are expected to be laid off.

On Jan. 21, Sarepta announced that, with an impending snowstorm on the east coast, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s meeting to review the company’s New Drug Application (NDA) for eteplirsen to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) was postponed.

DMD is a muscle wasting disease caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene. The disease is progressive and generally causes death in early adulthood. Complications include serious heart or respiratory-related problems. It mostly affects boys, about 1 in every 3,500 to 5,000 male children.

On Jan. 15, an FDA advisory committee decided to reschedule the meeting, at which point a recommendation or approval decision will be made. That meeting of the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Committee has not been rescheduled yet, but Sarepta believes it will be prior to May 26, which is the PDUFA date. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) is a law that allows the FDA to collect an application fee from drug companies when an NDA or Biologics License Application (BLA) is submitted.

The DMD drug arena has been fraught with failures and bad news this year. San Rafael, Calif.-based BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN)’s application for its DMD drug Kyndrisa (drisapersen) was turned down by the FDA on Jan. 15. The FDA argued that Kyndrisa didn’t show enough benefit.

On Jan. 25, Cambridge, Mass.-based Akashi Therapeuticsannounced that it had halted its DMD trial for HT-100 after one of its patients developed serious, life-threatening health problems. In that DMD is a serious, life-threatening health problem in itself, it’s not clear if the patient’s problems are directly related to the drug. The patient was receiving the highest dose in the HALO trial, while others in the trial with lower doses were not showing adverse side effects.