Liz Bar­ret­t's bet on Uro­Gen proves time­ly, as biotech's lead drug scores in key study

Fresh off the high of poach­ing No­var­tis on­col­o­gy group head Liz Bar­rett in­to tak­ing charge of the small biotech, Uro­Gen Phar­ma $URGN on Tues­day re­port­ed its lead drug had passed muster in a piv­otal study in pa­tients with urothe­lial can­cer.

Pa­tients with low-grade up­per tract urothe­lial can­cer (LG UTUC) were en­rolled in­to the phase III OLYM­PUS tri­al. They were giv­en in­jec­tions of Uro­Gen’s UGN-101 — a for­mu­la­tion of the chemother­a­py mit­o­mycin de­signed to pro­long ex­po­sure to the uri­nary tract in or­der to sub­vert surgery — once every week for 6 weeks. If tu­mors dis­ap­peared af­ter treat­ment, pa­tients were el­i­gi­ble to re­ceive ad­di­tion­al main­te­nance ther­a­py.

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