PhI­II fail in over­all sur­vival mea­sure clouds Ipsen's ex­pan­sion plans for can­cer drug Onivyde

Ipsen’s grand plan to open up new mar­kets for the can­cer drug Onivyde has hit a snag. Its Phase III tri­al test­ing the ther­a­py in small cell lung can­cer failed the pri­ma­ry end­point on over­all sur­vival, cast­ing a shad­ow on its reg­u­la­to­ry prospects.

Onivyde, a li­po­so­mal in­jec­tion of the chemother­a­py irinote­can, was orig­i­nal­ly de­vel­oped by Mer­ri­mack and strug­gled to gain trac­tion. But in 2017 Ipsen’s then-CEO, David Meek, saw po­ten­tial in the drug and wa­gered $575 mil­lion in cash — plus $450 mil­lion in mile­stones — to grab US rights to the drug in hopes of build­ing a whole fran­chise around it.

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