Ad­vax­is has tak­en its in­vestors on a bit of a roller coast­er ride this year.

The FDA slapped a clin­i­cal hold on a com­bo study of its lead drug ax­al­imo­gene filolis­bac and As­traZeneca’s Imfinzi in wake of a pa­tient death, which re­solved months lat­er af­ter a C-suite over­haul. Late Wednes­day, the New Jer­sey biotech added to the dra­ma by qui­et­ly dis­clos­ing that Am­gen has dropped their $540 mil­lion im­munother­a­py pact.

First inked in 2016 with $65 mil­lion up­front, the deal cen­tered around ADXS-NEO, which is de­signed to re­cruit a T cell at­tack on can­cer us­ing bio­engi­neered bac­te­ria. But Am­gen is re­turn­ing world­wide rights for de­vel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion just as Ad­vax­is is en­rolling pa­tients for its proof-of-con­cept work — the last step be­fore Am­gen was sup­posed to take over.

The news sent shares $ADXS in­to a steep drop, plung­ing 28% in pre-mar­ket trad­ing.

With­out giv­ing any rea­sons for the ter­mi­na­tion, Ad­vax­is says it will now eval­u­ate whether to re-part­ner the ADXS-NEO pro­gram. Nei­ther com­pa­nies have re­spond­ed to my re­quests for com­ment.

Am­gen $AMGN will have un­til Feb­ru­ary 8, 2019 to tie up any loose ends.

In 2017 and 2018 Ad­vax­is has re­ceived $5.8 mil­lion and $7.5 mil­lion in re­im­burse­ments re­spec­tive­ly for an al­liance that once promised $475 mil­lion in mile­stones.

The biotech is al­so part­nered with Bris­tol-My­ers on an Op­di­vo com­bi­na­tion pro­gram for ax­al­imo­gene filolis­bac.

The biotech industry has faced repeated calls to diversify its workforce — and in the last year, those calls got a lot louder. Though women account for just under half of all biotech employees around the world, they occupy very few places in C-suites, and even fewer make it to the helm.

Some companies are listening, according to a recent BIO survey which showed that this year’s companies were 2.5 times more likely to have a diversity and inclusion program compared to last year’s sample. But we still have a long way to go. Women represent just 31% of biotech executives, BIO reported. And those numbers are even more stark for women of color.

In the insular world of biotech, a spectacular failure can sometimes stay on any executive’s record for a long time. But for David Meek, the man at the helm of FerGene’s recent implosion, two questionable exits made way for what could be an excellent rebound.

Meek, most recently FerGene’s CEO and a past head at Ipsen, has become CEO at Mirati Therapeutics, taking the reins from founding CEO Charles Baum, who will step over into the role of president and head of R&D, according to a release.