Deaths of mon­keys spur clin­i­cal hold for rare dis­ease biotech's lead and on­ly drug — and a $95M cash in­fu­sion goes out the win­dow

In the world of small pub­lic biotechs, one mishap can be pun­ish­ing.

Just ask Lari­mar Ther­a­peu­tics, which dis­closed late Tues­day that the FDA has placed a clin­i­cal hold on its Phase I drug for Friedre­ich’s atax­ia fol­low­ing deaths of non-hu­man pri­mates in a tox­i­col­o­gy study.

The sur­prise set­back scut­tled plans for a $95 mil­lion pri­vate fi­nanc­ing that would’ve drawn in new cash from mar­quee in­vestors like Deer­field, RA Cap­i­tal, Cowen Health­care In­vest­ments, Vi­vo Cap­i­tal, Sur­vey­or Cap­i­tal (a Citadel com­pa­ny), Adage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment and Veri­tion Fund Man­age­ment. Shares $LRMR plunged 45.23% to $7.40 in af­ter-hours trad­ing.

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