Novus Ther­a­peu­tics plunges deep in­to pen­ny stock ter­ri­to­ry af­ter failed ear tri­al

Af­ter a more than 15-year run, a Cal­i­for­nia-based biotech is ex­plor­ing op­tions, in­clud­ing a sale, af­ter its lead ex­per­i­men­tal ther­a­py failed an ex­plorato­ry mid-stage study in pa­tients with mid­dle ear in­fec­tions char­ac­ter­ized by a build-up of flu­id be­hind the eardrum.

The com­pa­ny, ini­tial­ly called Tokai Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals but which sub­se­quent­ly changed its name to Novus Ther­a­peu­tics in 2017, saw its shares more than halve on Mon­day af­ter the drug — OP0201— did not pass muster as an ad­junct ther­a­py to oral an­tibi­otics in in­fants and chil­dren aged 6 to 24 months with acute oti­tis me­dia (OM).

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