In­tra-Cel­lu­lar fin­gers a high place­bo re­sponse ex­plain­ing a PhI­II fail­ure as lead drug goes 1-and-1 in de­pres­sion

In­tra-Cel­lu­lar Ther­a­pies put its best foot for­ward this morn­ing, high­light­ing the pos­i­tive im­pact its drug lu­mate­per­one had in a piv­otal study of bipo­lar de­pres­sion. But as we’ve seen so many times be­fore in Phase III de­pres­sion re­search, the Phase III run­ning along­side the win­ning study failed to show any re­al im­prove­ment over a sug­ar pill — scram­bling the out­come with a mixed set of da­ta that leaves this pro­gram un­der a cloud.

The biotech’s shares $IT­CI were quick­ly dragged low­er Mon­day morn­ing, but not in a dis­as­trous fash­ion. And as we’ve learned from J&J’s es­ke­t­a­mine work, a Phase III fail­ure doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly act as a har­bin­ger of doom.

Sign up to read this article for free.

Get free access to a limited number of articles, plus choose newsletters to get straight to your inbox.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER