Io­n­is scraps CF pro­gram in an­oth­er set­back for the dis­ease and the com­pa­ny

Io­n­is an­nounced on Fri­day they would kill an ear­ly-stage ef­fort for cys­tic fi­bro­sis, drop­ping out of a medi­um-pro­file race with two oth­er RNA-fo­cused biotechs and adding a sec­ond black mark in what’s al­ready been a tough year for their pipeline.

Io­n­is chief de­vel­op­ment of­fi­cer Richard Geary told in­vestors on their Q1 earn­ings call that they were cut­ting the Phase I/II CF pro­gram, known as Io­n­is-Enac-2.5-Rx, af­ter a long-term tox­i­col­o­gy in an­i­mals turned up con­cern­ing re­sults. Geary said they could have worked through the po­ten­tial safe­ty is­sue, but that it would have set back their time­lines con­sid­er­ably. Nei­ther he nor CEO Brett Mo­nia elab­o­rat­ed on what the is­sue was.

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