Less than stel­lar Phase I re­sults have trig­gered a pipeline cleanup at Sy­ros Phar­ma, where one of its two lead drugs — a CDK7 in­hibitor ad­min­is­tered in­tra­venous­ly — is get­ting swapped out with an oral ver­sion.

The biotech said it main­tains its be­lief in the CDK7 path­way for can­cer, but thinks pri­or­i­tiz­ing SY-5609, which ap­pears more se­lec­tive and po­tent in pre­clin­i­cal mod­els, is a wis­er choice than hold­ing on­to an IV drug that didn’t quite em­body the op­ti­mal bal­ance be­tween ef­fi­ca­cy and tol­er­a­bil­i­ty. A hu­man tri­al for SY-5609 is planned for ear­ly next year.

Sy­ros had po­si­tioned SY-1365 in a num­ber of sol­id tu­mors marked by spe­cif­ic ge­net­ic mu­ta­tions, in­clud­ing ovar­i­an and breast can­cers. Hav­ing treat­ed 68 pa­tients in an ex­pan­sion por­tion of the tri­al with both sin­gle-agent and com­bi­na­tion ther­a­pies — tar­get­ing some pa­tients who are re­sis­tant to CDK4/6 in­hibitors — in­ves­ti­ga­tors con­clud­ed they would need more fre­quent dos­ing to sus­tain the lev­el of CDK7 they need.

No­tably, on­ly 24 pa­tients were evalu­able at the da­ta cut­off, and none had bet­ter re­sponse than sta­ble dis­ease. Of those treat­ed with sin­gle-agent SY-1365, 42% had sta­ble dis­ease as de­fined by RE­CIST cri­te­ria, and the per­cent­age was 64% in the com­bo group (who were al­so giv­en ful­ves­trant or car­bo­platin).

Nan­cy Si­mon­ian Sy­ros

“We have gained im­por­tant in­sights from our work on SY-1365 that have in­formed our de­vel­op­ment strat­e­gy for SY-5609, in­clud­ing fo­cus­ing on pa­tient pop­u­la­tions most like­ly to re­spond to a CDK7 in­hibitor,” CEO Nan­cy Si­mon­ian said in a state­ment. “We are pri­or­i­tiz­ing SY-5609 be­cause we be­lieve it has best-in-class po­ten­tial and that it pro­vides the great­est op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­al­ize the promise of se­lec­tive CDK7 in­hi­bi­tion for pa­tients.”

In­vestors, though, saw the glass half emp­ty. Shares $SYRS are down 33.32% to $6.74.

This is not the first time Sy­ros’ lead drugs have dis­ap­point­ed. SY-1425, their RARα ag­o­nist de­ployed against acute myeloid leukemia, flopped in a Phase II two years ago. Sy­ros is con­duct­ing an­oth­er tri­al pair­ing the drug with azac­i­ti­dine, the stan­dard of care, that they say is turn­ing up high­er re­sponse rates. They will need some sol­id, hard da­ta to win skep­tics back.

The average level of investment required for a biotech start-up to succeed is increasing every year, elevating the pressure even further on venture capital to make smart financial investments. Financial investment alone, however, does not always guarantee that exciting innovations can be transformed into real businesses that make a meaningful difference to patients.

Beyond just capital

At Astellas Venture Management (AVM) – a wholly-owned venture capital organization within Astellas, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area – capital is just one of the ingredients we offer to add value to our biotechnology investments and partnerships. We generally take a strategic investor approach for companies in our invested portfolio, providing access to expertise, technology and/or resources in addition to the injection of finance. An equity investment from AVM can include access to Astellas’ research and development (R&D) capabilities and expertise, and a global network of partner academic institutions and biotechnology companies, to help advance and accelerate the start-up’s innovation.

Unum $UMRX is working its way through a survival plan of sorts.

After getting hit with a trio of FDA holds in its brief public history and triggering its second pivot to a new lead drug program while laying off 60% of the staff, the troubled penny stock biotech Unum Therapeutics has hatched new plans to secure financial backing while lining up a go-forward strategy for the company.

First, Lincoln Park Capital Fund has agreed to buy up to $25 million of the long-suffering stock, as Unum directs. And the executive team — led by CEO Chuck Wilson — has put everything on the table for consideration: a sale, acquisition, merger, licensing deal, you name it. The ACTR707 program, meanwhile, is being formally wrapped up — their second failed lead program.