Shire writes off a shot at long-act­ing he­mo­phil­ia drug af­ter small study flops

When Shire took over Bax­al­ta, it ac­quired a pro­gram in de­vel­op­ment that used the tech­nol­o­gy from near­by Lex­ing­ton, MA-based Xe­net­ic Bio­sciences to stretch SHP656 in­to a long-act­ing drug with the po­ten­tial for once-week­ly dos­ing, or less, for he­mo­phil­ia A.

But it didn’t work. And Xe­net­ic’s stock plunged 30%.

Xe­net­ic $XBIO says that in a Phase I/II study, con­ju­gat­ing poly­sial­ic acid to ther­a­peu­tic blood-clot­ting fac­tors with its plat­form tech had the right phar­ma­co­ki­net­ic pro­file for an ex­tend­ed half-life rFVI­II prod­uct. But it didn’t fit the bill for once-week­ly dos­ing.

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