Battered and weary, Vical flags for help following its lineup of lemons
Vical’s in trouble again. The San Diego drugmaker is waving the white flag this morning following a barrage of disappointments, posting a public notice that it’s seeking strategic guidance.
The company has suffered two major recent setbacks, and a history that reminds us that most biotechs fail. It was forced to restructure about six months ago in the aftermath of a critical Phase III failure testing its DNA vaccine ASP0113. When that program fell through, Vical laid off 40 of its 72 staffers at the time, and refocused on a different pipeline program: a vaccine for herpes simplex virus type 2. Then that failed only months later.
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