Once touted as Lyrica rival for diabetic nerve pain, Korean biotech's plasmid product implodes in PhIII
The Korean biotech industry’s bad year just got worse as one of its highly touted members admitted an embarrassing late-stage flop.
Helixmith — known as ViroMed just a few months ago — had much going for it heading into the 507-patient Phase III: The FDA had granted VM202 orphan drug and fast track designations, and it even picked up an RMAT badge during the study. Sometimes classified as a gene therapy, VM202 is a plasmid product that encodes for the human hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). Due to its dual neurotrophic and angiogenic properties, the drug was believed to alleviate pain caused by diabetic neuropathy.
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