All entries for: Discontinued Drug

October 31, 2024

Alnylam

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

Cambridge, MA
1,001-5,000 employees

“Today announced the decision to suspend further clinical development of ALN-KHK, an investigational RNAi therapeutic targeting ketohexokinase for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. This decision reflects portfolio prioritization efforts to allocate clinical, managerial and financial resources carefully to bring transformative medicines to patients.”

1 Discontinued Drug: ALN-KHK (biologic)
1 Discontinued Research Program

Disease Area: Chronic Disease
Drug Type: Biologic
April 25, 2024

Bristol Myers Squibb

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

Princeton, NJ
10,001-50,000 employees

Bristol Myers Squibb will cut 6% of its workforce in a restructuring meant to save $1.5 billion in costs by the end of next year.

The layoffs will affect some 2,200 employees, the company said Thursday. It’s also trimming its pipeline of experimental medicines, consolidating its array of offices and laboratories and reducing “third party” spending…

Bristol Myers’ growth in the near term will be hampered by looming patent expirations for its two top-selling drugs: the blood thinner Eliquis, which it sells with Pfizer, and the cancer immunotherapy Opdivo. Its third highest-grossing product, the multiple myeloma treatment Revlimid, already faces limited generic competition.

Eliquis is also one of the first 10 drugs the U.S. government has targeted for price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA…

“While the IRA has an impact in the middle of the decade, we feel very good about being able to more than compensate for that with a very young and attractive growth profile coming from our … portfolio and the pipeline,” said Boerner, on a conference call with analysts.

The restructuring announced Thursday is another step, designed to prioritize products that Bristol Myers sees as having the highest potential. The company said it plans to reinvest the targeted $1.5 billion in savings in those opportunities.

Two-thirds of the savings is expected to come out of Bristol Myers’ spending on research and development. The company has discontinued 12 programs, including a successor version of its immunotherapy Yervoy, and will continue to review its pipeline through the rest of the year, Samit Hirawat, Bristol Myers’ chief medical officer, said on Thursday’s call.”

1 Discontinued Drug: Yervoy (biologic)
12 Discontinued Research Programs: Yervoy, unnamed research programs

Disease Area: Multiple, Oncology
Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule
April 24, 2024

Roche

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

Basel, Switzerland
50,001+ employees

“As for its pipeline, the pharma group disclosed in Wednesday’s earnings presentation that it had discontinued the development of four early-stage assets including camonsertinib—which was being trialed in solid tumors—and belvarafenib, which was likewise being assessed for solid tumors in combination with Genentech’s Cotellic (cobimetinib). Roche also terminated two new molecular candidates—one for colorectal cancer and one for psychiatric disorders.”

4 Discontinued Drugs: camonsertinib (small molecule), belvarafenib (small molecule), unnamed colorectal cancer drug, unnamed psychiatric disorder drug
4 Discontinued Research Programs

Disease Area: Multiple, Oncology, Psychiatry
Drug Type: Small Molecule
April 24, 2024

BioMarin

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research, Layoffs

San Rafael, CA
1,001-5,000 employees

As a result of its prioritized portfolio, four programs will be discontinued, including BMN 331, BMN 255, BMN 355 and BMN 365. None of the programs were discontinued due to safety signals.

4 Discontinued Drugs: BMN 331 (biologic), BMN 255 (biologic), BMN 355 (biologic), BMN 365 (biologic)
4 Discontinued Research Programs

Disease Area: Cardiology, Chronic Disease, Multiple, Rare Diseases
Drug Type: Biologic
December 5, 2023

IGM Biosciences

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research, Layoffs

Mountain View, CA
201-500 employees

“The Company will continue to focus on the development of oncology and immunology and inflammation product candidates under its collaboration with Sanofi. In conjunction with this strategic refocusing, the Company will be reducing its workforce by approximately 22 percent…

“IGM continues to have a tremendous opportunity to transform a variety of disease areas using an entirely new class of antibody medicines,” said Fred Schwarzer, Chief Executive Officer of IGM Biosciences. “Although we are very encouraged by the clinical and preclinical data that we have generated for the programs we are halting, given the difficult conditions in the capital markets for our industry, we have decided to focus our capital resources on those opportunities that we believe have the most potential to produce significant near-term value. We are very sorry that some of our dedicated and talented employees will be leaving IGM as part of this strategic refocusing, and we wish to extend our sincere thanks and assistance to them in this difficult transition.”…

As a part of this strategic refocusing, the Company will halt the following clinical development activities:

Aplitabart in acute myeloid leukemia and in combination with birinapant
IGM-2644 (CD38 x CD3) in multiple myeloma
IGM-2537 (CD123 x CD3)
IGM-7354 (IL-15 x PD-L1)”

4 Discontinued Drugs: Aplitabart in acute myeloid leukemia (biologic), IGM-2644 (CD38 x CD3) in multiple myeloma (biologic), IGM-2537 (CD123 x CD3) (biologic), IGM-7354 (IL-15 x PD-L1) (biologic)
4 Discontinued Research Programs

Disease Area: Oncology
Drug Type: Biologic
October 26, 2023

Seagen

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

Bothell, WA
1,001-5,000 employees

“Seagen Inc. ended a program to study one of its drugs to treat an early-stage form of bladder cancer because it would have been subject to government price negotiations shortly after approval, Chief Executive Officer David Epstein said.

The company had been looking into using its drug Padcev to treat the nonmuscle-invasive version of the disease that accounts for about 70% of newly diagnosed bladder cancer cases. It stopped after determining that there would be no financial return from the potential use, as approval would have likely come soon before the drug became subject to price bargaining under the Inflation Reduction Act…”

1 Discontinued Drug: Padcev (biologic)
1 Discontinued Research Program

Disease Area: Oncology
Drug Type: Biologic
August 3, 2023

Vir Biotechnology

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

San Francisco, CA
201-500 employees

“Vir Biotechnology is narrowing its focus. Sitting on $1.9 billion, the infectious disease specialist has decided to stop work on its innate immunity small-molecule platform as part of its efforts to ‘judiciously allocate’ its capital.

San Francisco-based Vir was already primarily focused on biologics, making its name through work on the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody Xevudy and advancing a pipeline featuring other modalities including T-cell vaccines and siRNAs. But small molecules were in the mix, too, with the biotech identifying the modality as part of its plans for a multi-respiratory hepatitis B cure and response to COVID-19…

‘We are taking measures to continuously evaluate and judiciously allocate this capital to maximize value for our shareholders,’ De Backer said. ‘As part of this process and under my leadership, we made the decision to phase out our small molecule platform. This is the first step as we continue to advance our core capabilities and scientific programs.'”

2 Discontinued Drugs: unnamed multi-respiratory hepatitis B drug (small molecule), unnamed COVID-19 drug (small molecule)
2 Discontinued Research Programs

Disease Area: Multiple
Drug Type: Small Molecule
May 19, 2023

Novartis

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

Basel, Switzerland
50,001+ employees

“In an interview with Barron’s, Narasimhan said some of the programs which Novartis discontinued were cancer drugs in early-stage trials.

“We saw assets that were noncompetitive, or we thought might be unduly affected by IRA,” Narasimhan said.

The CEO said “a few” of the cancer drugs being dropped from Novartis’s pipeline were discontinued because of price negotiations.

The drugs that were dropped were “in areas where we didn’t think we could do a development plan that would allow us to successfully get the drug in patients, and fully developed across the range of indications within nine years,” Narasimhan said. They were in cancers particularly affecting the elderly, given that Medicare treats adults aged 65 and older.”

2 Discontinued Drugs: unnamed cancer drugs
2 Discontinued Research Programs

Disease Area: Oncology
Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule
November 8, 2022

Protagonist Therapeutics

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

Newark, CA
51-200 employees

Paused trials of rusfertide in additional indications: “In keeping with our organizational prioritization of rusfertide in PV, plans to initiate trials of rusfertide in additional disease indications have been paused. This decision was influenced in part by the recent enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States and includes previously planned trials of rusfertide in the subset of hereditary hemochromatosis patients with chronic arthropathy”

1 Discontinued Drug: rusfertide (biologic)
1 Discontinued Research Program

Disease Area: Immune Diseases
Drug Type: Biologic
November 1, 2022

Eli Lilly & Company

Discontinued Drug, Discontinued Research

Indianapolis, IN
10,001-50,000 employees

Eli Lilly laid blame Tuesday afternoon on President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act as the reason it scrapped a $40 million cancer drug.

As part of its third quarter update earlier Tuesday morning, the Big Pharma revealed it had removed a Phase I drug licensed from Fosun Pharma, a BCL2 inhibitor that had been undergoing studies for a variety of blood cancers. Though the reasoning had been initially unclear, an Eli Lilly spokesperson told Endpoints News in an email that “in light of the Inflation Reduction Act, this program no longer met our threshold for continued investment.”

Asked to explain how the IRA impacted this specific drug, the spokesperson highlighted the law’s impact on small molecule R&D.

“The IRA changes many dynamics for small molecules in oncology and when we integrated those changes with this program and its competitive landscape, the program’s future investment no longer met our threshold,” the spokesperson told Endpoints in a follow-up email.

1 Discontinued Drug: LOXO-338 (small molecule)
1 Discontinued Research Program

Disease Area: Oncology
Drug Type: Small Molecule
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