Men­lo’s so­lo pipeline drug suf­fers an­oth­er ug­ly tri­al fail­ure, done in by an out­per­form­ing place­bo

Six months ago Men­lo Ther­a­peu­tics $MN­LO saw its new­ly-pub­lic shares im­plode on a Phase II fail­ure for its sole drug in pru­ri­tus. To­day, the biotech took an­oth­er tor­pe­do right on the wa­ter­line as ser­lop­i­tant al­so flopped in a Phase II study for chron­ic cough.

Once again the drug flunked the pri­ma­ry and key sec­ondary end­points, and Men­lo is wash­ing its hands of this par­tic­u­lar in­di­ca­tion af­ter watch­ing the place­bo arm do bet­ter than the drug group. Here’s the prob­lem in a nut­shell:

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