Ac­er Ther­a­peu­tics’ bid to re­pur­pose celipro­lol — a be­ta-block­er on the mar­ket for hy­per­ten­sion — as a treat­ment for a rare, in­her­it­ed con­nec­tive tis­sue dis­or­der has hit a se­vere set­back. The New­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts-based com­pa­ny on Tues­day said the FDA re­ject­ed the drug and has asked for an­oth­er clin­i­cal tri­al.

The com­pa­ny’s shares $AC­ER cratered near­ly 77% to $4.47 in Tues­day morn­ing trad­ing.

Chris Schelling LinkedIn

The drug, brand­ed as Ed­si­vo, is un­der de­vel­op­ment for vas­cu­lar Ehlers-Dan­los syn­drome (vEDS) — a rare dis­or­der caused by mu­ta­tions large­ly in the COL3A1 gene, which caus­es ar­te­r­i­al dis­sec­tions and rup­tures that can lead to an ear­ly death. It is es­ti­mat­ed to af­fect be­tween 1 in 50,000 and 1 in 200,000 peo­ple, and there are no treat­ments ap­proved to treat it.

The com­pa­ny sub­mit­ted an ap­pli­ca­tion to mar­ket the drug based on a small, 54-pa­tient study — the Be­ta-Block­ers in Ehlers-Dan­los Syn­drome Treat­ment (BBEST) —  which was de­signed to show the drug could pre­vent ar­te­r­i­al dis­sec­tions and rup­tures in vEDS pa­tients. The tri­al test­ed the drug against a place­bo and was stopped ear­ly as celipro­lol was work­ing well; pa­tients giv­en the drug, com­pared with no treat­ment, saw a re­duc­tion in ar­te­r­i­al events, such as rup­ture or dis­sec­tion, by three­fold. How­ev­er, the study was un­der­pow­ered. Re­searchers ac­knowl­edged that they did not “reach our tar­get num­ber of pa­tients”.

In April, Paris vEDS Pa­tient Reg­istry Da­ta was pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Col­lege of Car­di­ol­o­gy. It “de­scribed the long-term out­come of 144 COL3A1+ vEDS pa­tients, most of whom (~90%) were treat­ed with celipro­lol and mon­i­tored for up to 20 yrs (me­di­an 5.3 yrs). Key da­ta high­lights in­clude low­er rates of mor­tal­i­ty and ar­te­r­i­al com­pli­ca­tions in this pa­tient group than that ex­pect­ed from the nat­ur­al his­to­ry of the dis­ease. Celipro­lol-treat­ed pa­tients had an 80.7% sur­vival rate at ~11 yrs vs 48.5% for those not treat­ed,” Need­ham’s Serge Be­langer wrote in a note.

Be­langer was op­ti­mistic the drug would win ap­proval, and es­ti­mat­ed a tar­get mar­ket op­por­tu­ni­ty be­tween $200 mil­lion and $400 mil­lion, based on ex­pect­ed Ed­si­vo an­nu­al pric­ing of $100,000-$200,00 per pa­tient.

On Tues­day, Ac­er chief Chris Schelling said the com­pa­ny is ex­pect­ed to re­spond to the FDA in the third quar­ter.

The average level of investment required for a biotech start-up to succeed is increasing every year, elevating the pressure even further on venture capital to make smart financial investments. Financial investment alone, however, does not always guarantee that exciting innovations can be transformed into real businesses that make a meaningful difference to patients.

Beyond just capital

At Astellas Venture Management (AVM) – a wholly-owned venture capital organization within Astellas, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area – capital is just one of the ingredients we offer to add value to our biotechnology investments and partnerships. We generally take a strategic investor approach for companies in our invested portfolio, providing access to expertise, technology and/or resources in addition to the injection of finance. An equity investment from AVM can include access to Astellas’ research and development (R&D) capabilities and expertise, and a global network of partner academic institutions and biotechnology companies, to help advance and accelerate the start-up’s innovation.

Unum $UMRX is working its way through a survival plan of sorts.

After getting hit with a trio of FDA holds in its brief public history and triggering its second pivot to a new lead drug program while laying off 60% of the staff, the troubled penny stock biotech Unum Therapeutics has hatched new plans to secure financial backing while lining up a go-forward strategy for the company.

First, Lincoln Park Capital Fund has agreed to buy up to $25 million of the long-suffering stock, as Unum directs. And the executive team — led by CEO Chuck Wilson — has put everything on the table for consideration: a sale, acquisition, merger, licensing deal, you name it. The ACTR707 program, meanwhile, is being formally wrapped up — their second failed lead program.