You can add one more de­pres­sion drug tri­al to the scrap heap of failed clin­i­cal ex­plo­rations.

Vista­Gen fol­lowed its spring fail­ure for AV-101 as a monother­a­py with a fol­lowup de­feat us­ing the ther­a­py as an ad­junc­tive treat­ment for ma­jor de­pres­sion, adding it to stan­dard drugs among treat­ment-re­sis­tant pa­tients in Phase II.

It didn’t work.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors at the South San Fran­cis­co-based com­pa­ny spec­u­lat­ed that the drug wasn’t mak­ing it across the blood-brain bar­ri­er in large enough con­cen­tra­tions to make a dif­fer­ence. And they tried to fos­ter some hope among in­vestors by cit­ing an­i­mal da­ta in­di­cat­ing that adding it to probenecid could do the trick.

In­vestors, though, were in no mood to play along. The stock $VT­GN took a nasty dive, plung­ing more than 60% and drop­ping deep in­to pen­ny stock ter­ri­to­ry. At one point, in 2015, the stock trad­ed at $16. It’s now less than 40 cents.

It al­so didn’t help that the com­pa­ny cit­ed its oth­er, more ad­vanced work in the field.

“We re­main ex­cit­ed by and fo­cused on con­tin­ued ex­e­cu­tion of our Phase 3 pro­gram for PH94B in so­cial anx­i­ety dis­or­der and our Phase 2 pro­gram for PH10 in ma­jor de­pres­sive dis­or­der,” said CEO Shawn Singh in a pre­pared state­ment. “Each of these first-in-class com­pounds is fur­ther along in de­vel­op­ment than AV-101, as they have al­ready demon­strat­ed clin­i­cal proof of con­cept in Phase 2 stud­ies, and, thus, in 2020, we will be pro­ceed­ing in­to Phase 3 and Phase 2b stud­ies, re­spec­tive­ly.”

De­pres­sion has been a dis­as­ter zone for big and small com­pa­nies alike, with Sage be­ing one of the few that has bucked that trend — for now.

Cyclerion Therapeutics may have the design of a Phase IIb study ready to go, but it’s scrambling for a way to fund it.

The company said in a press release that it’s “actively evaluating the best combination of capital, capabilities, and transactions available to it to advance the development of zagociguat,” its lead candidate for a rare, genetic mitochondrial disease known as MELAS.

In a separate SEC filing, Cyclerion once again flagged “substantial doubt about (its) ability to continue as a going concern.” As of the end of 2022, it had cash and cash equivalents of only $13.4 million.

A small, Santa Ana-based biotech created in 2017 is looking to enter a SPAC deal as it lays out plans to begin trials in its lead cell therapy candidates and bring on new executives.

Graf Acquisition Corp. IV and NKGen Biotech announced Thursday, with few other details, that the two companies signed a non-binding letter of intent to “pursue a business combination.” Graf Acquisition II and III withdrew their IPOs last year.

The FDA has rejected Incyte’s extended-release formulation of ruxolitinib tablets, in a surprise setback for the company’s plans to build on its blockbuster Jakafi franchise.

The ruxolitinib XR tablets are designed to be taken once a day, whereas Jakafi is indicated for twice daily dosage (although some patients can take it once daily).

According to Incyte, the FDA acknowledged in its complete response letter that the study submitted in the NDA “met its objective of bioequivalence based on area under the curve (AUC) parameters but identified additional requirements for approval.”