Pa­tient dies in a trou­bled HBV drug pro­gram — forc­ing de­vel­op­ers to scrap the drug and shift fo­cus. To STING

Things have just gone from bad to worse at Hop­kin­ton, MA-based Spring Bank Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

Re­searchers say that a pa­tient died in their Phase IIb study of ina­ri­givir for hep B — and they’re scrap­ping the work and shift­ing fo­cus to STING.

News of the pa­tient death came just weeks af­ter the biotech told in­vestors that safe­ty prob­lems marked by po­ten­tial liv­er dam­ag­ing he­pa­to­cel­lu­lar dys­func­tion and in­creas­es of ALT forced them to halt dos­ing over the Christ­mas break. That pause caused 1 rout for their share price, which once trad­ed north of $18 a share.

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