Drum­beat of bad news con­tin­ues at On­coMed as Cel­gene dumps op­tion on one of its last pipeline ef­forts

Five years ago, On­coMed $OMED looked like one of the hottest on­col­o­gy com­pa­nies in the US, bask­ing in the glow of a multi­bil­lion-dol­lar deal with the go-go team at Cel­gene. 

Then its lead drugs foundered in a se­ries of clin­i­cal dis­as­ters last year that pre­saged Glax­o­SmithK­line’s ex­it from their part­ner­ship. The com­pa­ny re­struc­tured in the spring of 2017, right af­ter Bay­er bowed out. CEO Paul Hast­ings hit the ex­it ear­ly this year. And this morn­ing Cel­gene is cut­ting loose from one of their re­main­ing op­tions, pass­ing on a li­cense to On­coMed’s lead drug — a bis­pe­cif­ic an­ti­body dubbed navi­cix­izum­ab (an­ti-DLL4/VEGF bis­pe­cif­ic, OMP-305B83).

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