Af­ter bil­lion-dol­lar drug deal, pa­tient death and tri­al hold crip­ple Mer­sana's shares

Just two years af­ter ink­ing a bil­lion-dol­lar deal on its lead drug, Mer­sana’s can­cer pro­gram has been put on a par­tial clin­i­cal hold by the FDA due to a pa­tient death.

The Cam­bridge, MA biotech re­port­ed Thurs­day that the pa­tient death could be re­lat­ed to its drug XMT-1522. Un­der the hold, Mer­sana $MRSN can’t en­roll new pa­tients in the Phase I tri­al, which is test­ing the drug against breast, gas­tric, and non-small cell lung can­cers. Pa­tients al­ready in the study, how­ev­er, will con­tin­ue tak­ing XMT-1522.

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