Sept. 11 Quick Takes: Surprise miss for Acelyrin in hidradenitis suppurativa
Plus: Moderna, Immatics in oncology discovery, development deal, and updates from Takeda, Novartis, Crinetics, Verona, Nestlé
Acelyrin Inc. (NASDAQ:SLRN) shares fell 61% in early after-hours trading Monday after the company reported that izokibep missed the primary endpoint in a Phase IIb/III trial to treat hidradenitis suppurativa. The small, injectable protein, which inhibits IL-17A and is one tenth the size of a mAb, did not show significant improvement compared with placebo on the study’s HiSCR75 endpoint. The endpoint measured the proportion of patients with 75% clearance of abscesses or nodules using a non-responder imputation model; the molecule did meet significance using a last observation carried forward model. Acelyrin’s $621 million IPO in May is the year’s largest so far; its market cap was $2.7 billion at Monday’s close.
The latest deal by Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) to develop new cancer vaccines is its partnership with Germany-based Immatics N.V. (NASDAQ:IMTX), in which the Boston-based biotech is paying $120 million up front. The partners will use Moderna’s mRNA technology for in vivo expression of Immatics’ TCR bispecifics; will seek to create new mRNA therapies using data from Immatics’ XPRESIDENT discovery platform; and will pair Immatics’ IMA203 TCR T cell therapy with Moderna’s PRAME cancer vaccine in a clinical study. Immatics is eligible to receive $1.7 billion in milestones, plus royalties. Moderna and CARsgen Therapeutics Holdings Ltd. (HKEX:2171) said last month they will study a CAR T/mRNA cancer vaccine combination in the clinic...