June 14 Quick Takes: Biogen’s Nightstar acquisition falls flat with second gene therapy failure; plus RAPT, Terns, Amylyx, Avenue and more
Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) announced the company’s second late-stage failure for an ophthalmic gene therapy in the past month on Monday when the biopharma said timrepigene emparvovec (BIIB111) missed the primary and secondary endpoints in the Phase III STAR trial to treat choroideremia. Last month Biogen said cotoretigene toliparvovec (BIIB112) failed in the Phase II/III XIRIUS trial to treat X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP). Biogen paid $877 million in 2019 to acquire Nightstar Therapeutics plc.
RAPT Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:RAPT) gained 116% to $40.02 Monday, reaching $1 billion in market cap, after reporting Phase Ib data demonstrating its oral CCR4 inhibitor RPT193 led to improvements across exploratory efficacy endpoints in moderate to severe atopic dermatitis patients after four weeks of once-daily dosing. ...