Be­lea­guered Zaf­gen crushed af­ter FDA de­mands force it to dump lead drug

Stymied at the FDA with a lin­ger­ing clin­i­cal hold on its lead obe­si­ty drug, Zaf­gen is dump­ing the ther­a­py and re­treat­ing to a pre­clin­i­cal pro­gram in the pipeline.

The biotech an­nounced af­ter the mar­ket closed on Tues­day that it will now cir­cle the wag­ons around ZGN-1061 af­ter be­lo­ranib was linked with the death of two pa­tients in a piv­otal study. Zaf­gen al­so says it will once again re­duce its ranks, chop­ping 34% of the sur­vivors and cut­ting the pay­roll to 31. The re­or­ga­ni­za­tion is claim­ing the jobs of Patrick Lous­tau, pres­i­dent, and Ali­cia Sec­or, chief com­mer­cial of­fi­cer.

Zaf­gen’s al­ready bat­tered shares plunged 50% by mid-morn­ing Wednes­day. Its shares have shed close to 90% of their 52-week high price, leav­ing the mar­ket cap at $93 mil­lion; less than the cash it has on hand.

Zaf­gen strug­gled might­i­ly for months to over­come its prob­lems, but ul­ti­mate­ly the biotech was over­whelmed af­ter a pa­tient died in their Phase III study for Prad­er-Willi syn­drome, which they de­ter­mined was caused by a pul­monary em­bolism. Sub­se­quent­ly an­oth­er pa­tient tak­ing the drug died, al­so from a pul­monary em­bolism, forc­ing the FDA to or­der a com­plete stop to any fur­ther dos­ing.

Zaf­gen cut its near-com­plete stud­ies short, rolling out pos­i­tive da­ta on weight loss and re­fo­cus­ing on rare dis­eases, but it was all for naught. Reg­u­la­tors weren’t in a for­giv­ing mood, or ready to let the de­vel­op­ment pro­gram con­tin­ue the way the biotech had pro­posed. The FDA didn’t fall­en in line with Zaf­gen’s plan to blaze a path for­ward with a new Phase III study tied to a risk mit­i­ga­tion strat­e­gy. In a call with an­a­lysts on Tues­day evening, CEO Tom Hugh­es said that while the agency ap­peared re­cep­tive to its risk mit­i­ga­tion strat­e­gy, reg­u­la­tors de­mand­ed more time for dis­cus­sion and looked for a longer Phase III that would “great­ly ex­tend” the time­line and cost need­ed to be­gin com­mer­cial­iza­tion work.

As is of­ten the case with Zaf­gen, ex­ecs spun the news hard, with Hugh­es dogged­ly in­sist­ing on the pos­i­tive as­pects of start­ing with a clean slate and a new drug. But Zaf­gen is mov­ing from a piv­otal stage back to a pre­clin­i­cal drug that has yet to be test­ed in hu­mans. Hugh­es in­sist­ed that 1061, which has on­ly been test­ed in an­i­mals, is sig­nif­i­cant­ly de-risked, a po­si­tion few ex­pe­ri­enced drug de­vel­op­ers would con­sid­er plau­si­ble, giv­en the ex­tra­or­di­nar­i­ly high rate of fail­ure for all pre­clin­i­cal pro­grams, let alone the spe­cial de­mands placed on any obe­si­ty drug.

Zaf­gen will still have to con­tend with an­gry in­vestors who watched the share price for the biotech plunge last year as com­pa­ny ex­ec­u­tives re­fused for sev­er­al days to say just why they had can­celled a planned road show. On­ly af­ter a pro­longed pause did the com­pa­ny re­veal that first death, still try­ing to de­ter­mine whether he was in the drug arm or the place­bo group. Sahm Ad­ran­gi’s Ker­ris­dale Cap­i­tal lat­er mount­ed a short at­tack on the wound­ed com­pa­ny, say­ing that be­lo­ranib had ze­ro chance of ever get­ting an ap­proval and was worth noth­ing more than what the com­pa­ny had in the bank, which they would prob­a­bly squan­der any­way.

An­a­lysts were left to sort through the wreck­age Wednes­day morn­ing. RBC’s Simos Sime­oni­dis de­cid­ed to dis­con­tin­ue cov­er­age of Zaf­gen and oth­er obe­si­ty-re­lat­ed biotechs — which have seen lit­tle that could be con­sid­ered pos­i­tive news in some time — and some oth­er skep­tics ad­just­ed their fore­casts for Zaf­gen’s shares to match the amount of cash the com­pa­ny still has in hand.

CEO Tom Hugh­es’ state­ment:

“Giv­en the height­ened com­plex­i­ty and fu­ture cost of be­lo­ranib de­vel­op­ment, bal­anced against the emerg­ing prod­uct pro­file of ZGN-1061, we be­lieve that the long-term op­por­tu­ni­ty for ZGN-1061 is more ro­bust than for be­lo­ranib. Giv­en our deep knowl­edge of this new and ex­cit­ing drug class, and our strong cash po­si­tion, we be­lieve we are well-po­si­tioned to ad­vance ZGN-1061 as a po­ten­tial new treat­ment for preva­lent obe­si­ty-re­lat­ed in­di­ca­tions.”

Forge Bi­o­log­ics’ cGMP Com­pli­ant and Com­mer­cial­ly Vi­able Be­spoke Affin­i­ty Chro­matog­ra­phy Plat­form

Forge Biologics has developed a bespoke affinity chromatography platform approach that factors in unique vector combinations to streamline development timelines and assist our clients in efficiently entering the clinic. By leveraging our experience with natural and novel serotypes and transgene conformations, we are able to accelerate affinity chromatography development by nearly 3-fold. Many downstream purification models are serotype-dependent, demanding unique and time-consuming development strategies for each AAV gene therapy product1. With the increasing demand to propel AAV gene therapies to market, platform purification methods that support commercial-scale manufacturing of high-quality vectors with excellent safety and efficacy profiles are essential.

Feng Zhang (Susan Walsh/AP Images)

In search of new way to de­liv­er gene ed­i­tors, CRISPR pi­o­neer turns to mol­e­c­u­lar sy­ringes

Bug bacteria are ruthless.

Some soil bacteria have evolved tiny, but deadly injection systems that attach to insect cells, perforate them and release toxins inside — killing a bug in just a few days’ time. Scientists, on the other hand, want to leverage that system to deliver medicines.

In a paper published Wednesday in Nature, MIT CRISPR researcher Feng Zhang and his lab describe how they engineered these syringes made by bacteria to deliver potential therapies like toxins that kill cancer cells and gene editors. With the help of an AI program, they developed syringes that can load proteins of their choice and selectively target human cells.

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Dif­fu­sion to hand Nas­daq spot to EIP Phar­ma for PhI­Ib de­men­tia study of ex-Ver­tex drug

One of the more than a dozen bidders for Diffusion Pharmaceuticals’ spot on Nasdaq has prevailed.

Boston biotech EIP Pharma will merge with Diffusion in an all-stock deal, with plans to start a Phase IIb clinical trial in the coming months in a common form of dementia with no approved treatments. The combined company will be renamed CervoMed.

The nine-year-old privately-held EIP is working on a former Vertex drug that it will test in a 160-person Phase IIb in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies, or DLB. The National Institute on Aging is expected to fund that trial with a $21 million grant. With the reverse merger, slated for closing in the middle of this year, EIP will be funded through that readout in the second half of 2024. EIP’s equity and debt holders will own about 77.25% of the combined company.

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Luke Miels, GSK chief commercial officer

GSK picks up Scynex­is' FDA-ap­proved an­ti­fun­gal drug for $90M up­front

GSK is dishing out $90 million cash to add an antifungal drug to its commercial portfolio, in a deal spotlighting the pharma giant’s growing focus on infectious diseases.

The upfront will lock in an exclusive license to Scynexis’ Brexafemme, which was approved in 2021 to treat a yeast infection known as vulvovaginal candidiasis, except in China and certain other countries where Scynexis already out-licensed the drug.

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See­los Ther­a­peu­tics 'tem­porar­i­ly' stops study in rare neu­ro dis­or­der for busi­ness rea­sons

Microcap biotech Seelos Therapeutics is halting enrollment of its study in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (also known as Machado-Joseph disease) because of “financial considerations,” and in order to focus on other studies, the company said today, adding that the pause would be temporary.

The study will continue with the patients who have already enrolled, and the data from them will be used to decide whether to continue enrolling others in the future.

Alec­tor cuts 11% of work­force as it dou­bles down on late-stage neu­ro pro­grams part­nered with GSK, Ab­b­Vie

A month after revealing plans to concentrate on its late-stage immuno-neurology pipeline, Alector is trimming its headcount by 11%.

The layoffs will impact around 30 employees across the organization, the company disclosed in an SEC filing, adding that the plan will “better align the company’s resources” with the new strategy. With $712.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments as of the end of 2022, Alector believes the reserves will now get it through 2025.

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Mathai Mammen, FogPharma's next CEO

Math­ai Mam­men hands in J&J's R&D keys to lead Greg Ver­dine’s Fog­Phar­ma 

In the early 1990s, Mathai Mammen was a teaching assistant in Greg Verdine’s Science B46 course at Harvard. In June, the former R&D head at Johnson & Johnson will succeed Verdine as CEO, president and chair of FogPharma, the same month the seven-year-old biotech kickstarts its first clinical trial.

After leading R&D at one of the largest drugmakers in the world, taking the company through more than half a dozen drug approvals in the past few years, not to mention a Covid-19 vaccine race, Mammen departed J&J last month and will take the helm of a Cambridge, MA biotech attempting to go after what Verdine calls the “true emperor of all oncogenes” — beta-catenin.

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J&J bows out of RSV vac­cine race, end­ing PhI­II study and ced­ing to Pfiz­er, GSK

Johnson & Johnson announced Wednesday morning it is ending development of its adult RSV vaccine that was in the middle of a 27,200-patient trial, giving up a big slice of what’s expected to be the next multibillion-dollar pharma market.

The decision came down to the shifting RSV “competitive landscape,” a company spokesperson tells Endpoints News, adding the “breadth of options” was much different than when J&J first started its pivotal study. The spokesperson declined to comment on the Phase III data, saying only the shot is undergoing an “ongoing assessment.”

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No longer ‘dead or just hi­ber­nat­ing,’ drug­mak­ers re­turn to heart med­i­cines

In 2015, now-FDA Commissioner Robert Califf joined industry, academic and regulatory representatives in Washington to discuss why more drugs weren’t in development for cardiovascular diseases, the leading US cause of death and once a mainstay of pharmaceutical industry blockbusters.

The group pointed to many reasons. Clinical trials could take years and testing was expensive. Wide availability of generic drugs made the commercial prospects uncertain. Their paper title summed up the mood: “Cardiovascular Drug Development: Is it Dead or Just Hibernating?”

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