The de­layed-re­lease for­mu­la­tion of Iron­wood and Al­ler­gan’s bow­el drug Linzess will not see the light of day.

The ex­per­i­men­tal drug, MD-7246, failed to help pa­tients with ab­dom­i­nal pain as­so­ci­at­ed with ir­ri­ta­ble bow­el syn­drome with di­ar­rhea (IBS-D) in a mid-stage study, prompt­ing the part­ners to aban­don the ther­a­py.

First ap­proved in 2012, Linzess (known chem­i­cal­ly as lina­clotide) en­hances the ac­tiv­i­ty of the in­testi­nal en­zyme guany­late cy­clase-C to in­crease the se­cre­tion of in­testi­nal flu­id and then tran­sit through the in­testi­nal tract, as well as re­duce vis­cer­al pain, to re­lieve pain and con­sti­pa­tion as­so­ci­at­ed with IBS.

MD-7246 was de­signed to sim­ply deal with the pain by tar­get­ing the de­liv­ery of lina­clotide to the colon, where the ma­jor­i­ty of the ab­dom­i­nal pain as­so­ci­at­ed with IBS is be­lieved to orig­i­nate, and to lim­it flu­id se­cre­tion in the small in­tes­tine for a min­i­mal im­pact on bow­el func­tion.

Ear­li­er this week, the part­ners said MD-7246 failed both the main and sec­ondary goals of the 388 pa­tient (IBS-D) Phase II study, but did not dis­close de­tails. Back in 2016, in a tri­al of 532 ir­ri­ta­ble bow­el pa­tients with con­sti­pa­tion (IBS-C), MD-7246 did help im­prove ab­dom­i­nal pain rel­a­tive to place­bo with no ef­fect on bow­el func­tion. In April, Cred­it Su­isse’s Mar­tin Auster had mod­eled ~$300 mil­lion sales op­por­tu­ni­ty for MD-7246 for Iron­wood, based on the com­pa­ny’s sales/re­im­burse­ment ap­por­tion­ment with part­ner Al­ler­gan (now a unit of Ab­b­Vie).

Mark Mal­lon

With MD-7246 in the scrap heap, Iron­wood is left with IW-3718 as the sole clin­i­cal-stage de­vel­op­ment pro­gram, which is cur­rent­ly in late-stage de­vel­op­ment for use in re­frac­to­ry gas­troe­sophageal re­flux dis­ease. An up­date on the pro­gram was ex­pect­ed in the sec­ond half of this year, but will like­ly slide in­to 2021 due to Covid-19-re­lat­ed de­lays.

“As Linzess faces a 2029 hori­zon for gener­ics based on ex­ist­ing set­tle­ments, we an­tic­i­pate the com­pa­ny will take steps to re­place the rev­enue from that fran­chise over the next sev­er­al years by in-li­cens­ing new as­sets. We be­lieve some val­ue-fo­cused share­hold­ers may dis­like this strat­e­gy,” Cowen’s Boris Peak­er wrote in a note on Wednes­day.

Linzess gen­er­at­ed about $803 mil­lion in sales in 2019.

Pe­ter Hecht Cy­cle­ri­on

Last year, Iron­wood shed its oth­er pipeline prospects to fo­cus on GI dis­or­ders, by spin­ning out a com­pa­ny called Cy­cle­ri­on fo­cused on the sol­u­ble guany­late cy­clase (GC) — a key en­zyme in the ni­tric ox­ide sig­nal­ing path­way — busi­ness. The Boston drug­mak­er’s chief Pe­ter Hecht left to head Cy­cle­ri­on, while Iron­wood brought As­traZeneca vet­er­an Mark Mal­lon to the helm.

After making it clear that the US’ current monkeypox vaccine supply is insufficient, the FDA on Tuesday authorized a new route of administration that should increase the number of available doses by five-fold.

Regulators cleared Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine for intradermal injection in adults older than 18. Unlike subcutaneous injection — the current method by which vaccine is delivered under the skin — an intradermal jab goes directly into the skin. It’s believed that this method requires less vaccine, since the dermis is rich in dendritic cells which specialize in taking up foreign antigens and presenting them to the immune system, according to Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Over the past few years, the promise of blocking CD47 — a “don’t eat me” signal co-opted by cancer cells — has sent drugmakers big and small into a frenzy. But one biotech is now bowing out.

Zai Lab is deprioritizing ZL-1201, its CD47 inhibitor, scrapping plans for a Phase II trial. It will now “pursue out-licensing opportunities,” the company said in its Q2 update. The decision was based on a review of the competitive landscape, it added, without going into further details.

Less than a week after HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra declared monkeypox a national health emergency, reports have emerged that the US plans to extend its vaccine supply by opting for a different route of administration.

Officials are expected to call for intradermal injection of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine — the only shot approved specifically for monkeypox in the US — as opposed to subcutaneous injection, unnamed sources told both the New York Times and Washington Post on Tuesday.