For 13 years, the Cana­di­an biotech Cor­re­vio tried to get the FDA to ac­cept a heart drug since aban­doned by Mer­ck and Astel­las. Yes­ter­day, the agency’s out­side ex­perts vot­ed 11-2 against ap­proval, all but as­sur­ing an­oth­er re­jec­tion for the atri­al fib­ril­la­tion com­pound ver­nakalant.

Mark Cor­ri­g­an

And to­day Cor­re­vio an­nounced that Cor­re­vio may soon be no more. The com­pa­ny said it is look­ing to sell it­self as its stock plum­mets in­to pen­ny-stock ter­ri­to­ry $CORV and its po­ten­tial mon­ey­mak­er sput­ters once more.

“It is in the best in­ter­est of our stake­hold­ers to ex­pand our in­ter­nal cor­po­rate de­vel­op­ment ef­forts and for­mal­ly eval­u­ate strate­gic al­ter­na­tives for the com­pa­ny,” CEO Mark Cor­ri­g­an said in state­ment.

Ver­nakalant could have made Cor­re­vio up to $150 mil­lion per year if ap­proved, ac­cord­ing to Bloom Bur­ton an­a­lyst David Mar­tin. Then known as Car­diome, the biotech had first tried to get the drug ap­proved in 2006. When the FDA re­ject­ed them in 2008, they planned an­oth­er Phase III tri­al.

That Phase III came to a halt when the FDA slapped a hold over a pa­tient death, bur­nish­ing safe­ty con­cerns that prompt­ed the first re­jec­tion and were front and cen­ter in yes­ter­day’s FDA out­side re­view.

The drug is ap­proved in Eu­rope, Cana­da and oth­er coun­tries. Even with sales from that and oth­er drugs, in­clud­ing two an­tibi­otics, Cor­re­vio post­ed $10.8 mil­lion in loss­es last quar­ter.

→ Mark Mallon steps aside at Ironwood on March 12 after close to two years at the helm, and he already has a new change of scenery squared away. Beginning April 19, Mallon takes charge as CEO of cancer-focused genetic test maker NeoGenomics out of Fort Myers, FL while his predecessor, Douglas VanOort, is retiring after 12 years as NeoGenomics’ chairman and CEO.

It’s a fresh start for Mallon after what will amount to a tumultuous 23 months as Ironwood’s chief executive. Last year was marked by trial failures that spelled double trouble, leaving the Ironwood cupboard bare: first, a Linzess reformulation for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in May, and then the drug IW-3718 for persistent acid reflux in September. After IW-3718’s discontinuation, Ironwood chopped its staff by 35%. On Feb. 8, Mallon announced his departure at Ironwood, with president Tom McCourt getting bumped up to interim CEO.

The Endpoints News team is continuing to track IPO filings for 2021, and we’ve designed a new tracker page for the effort.

Check it out here: Biopharma IPOs 2021 from Endpoints News

You’ll be able to find all the biotechs that have filed and priced so far this year, sortable by quarter and listed by newest first. As of the time of publishing on Feb. 25, there have already been 16 biotechs debuting on Nasdaq so far this year, with an additional four having filed their S-1 paperwork.

Not even one month after Big Pharma took notice of Artiva when Merck signed a collaboration worth nearly $2 billion in milestones, the off-the-shelf NK cell biotech already has its next big fundraise.

Artiva returns from the venture well Friday with a $120 million Series B round, money they will use to get their first program into the clinic and to file INDs for another two candidates. The raise marks the latest development in a rapidly expanding footprint for Artiva, which, in addition to the Merck deal last month, has now raised almost $200 million since its Series A last June.