Back-to-back pivotal failures force Theravance to lay off 270 staffers, prune R&D focus
If it all went well, Q3 was supposed to be harvest time for Theravance.
Both of its lead drugs — the pan-JAK inhibitor izencitinib and blood pressure drug ampreloxetine — were slated for crucial readouts. The biotech was, as SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges put it, “entering the most important period of validation events in its history.”
Instead, izencitinib flopped a key Phase IIb trial in ulcerative colitis, putting the J&J partnership around it in jeopardy. A month later, Theravance is reporting that the Phase III trial testing ampreloxetine in symptomatic neurogenic orthostatic hypotension is also a failure, imploding the company’s entire pipeline and forcing a rethink on R&D strategy.
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