Kiniksa whiffs on ef­fi­ca­cy try­ing to re­pur­pose an RA pro­gram for Covid-19, but spins sur­vival 'trend­s' as a pos­i­tive

As the search for more po­ten­tial Covid-19 treat­ments con­tin­ues, Kiniksa Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals $KN­SA has re­vealed da­ta for a re­pur­posed im­munol­o­gy can­di­date it says are pos­i­tive. But the num­bers paint a much murki­er pic­ture.

The Bermu­da-based biotech whiffed bad­ly on the pri­ma­ry end­point in the small Phase II por­tion of a Phase II/III study for its mavril­i­mum­ab pro­gram, say­ing that af­ter two weeks the pro­por­tion of pa­tients with se­vere Covid-19 who were alive and off sup­ple­men­tal oxy­gen was not sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant com­pared to place­bo. Kiniksa al­so missed the sec­ondary end­point — pro­por­tion of pa­tients alive and with­out res­pi­ra­to­ry fail­ure af­ter four weeks — though it not­ed the da­ta moved in the right di­rec­tion over longer pe­ri­ods.

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