ZymoGenetics Partner Halts Multiple Sclerosis Trials After Drug Fails
Luke Timmerman 9/28/09
More bad news out of ZymoGenetics (NASDAQ: ZGEN) this morning. The Seattle-based biotech company disclosed in a regulatory filing today that its partner, Germany-based pharmaceutical giant Merck KGaA, has halted studies of their atacicept drug candidate for multiple sclerosis after concluding the drug’s benefit wasn’t worth the risk.
One trial showed that multiple sclerosis patients actually had more flare-ups and brain lesions when they were given atacicept, compared with a placebo. Two studies are still ongoing of atacicept, one for rheumatoid arthritis and one for lupus, and no com
