In crowded geographic atrophy field, NGM’s Phase II miss diminishes its chances

A clinical miss by NGM’s complement inhibitor for geographic atrophy (GA) makes it unlikely that Merck will exercise an option on the program, setting back the biotech’s sole ophthalmic candidate in human testing, and sinking its shares to an all-time low.

NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:NGM) lost $8.14 (70%) to $3.41 on Monday, shedding more than $650 million in market cap, after the company said C3 inhibitor NGM621 missed the primary endpoint in the Phase II CATALINA trial. The IgG1 mAb failed to improve the rate of change in GA lesion area vs. sham at 52 weeks...