Tolerx - The 2011 Biotech Graveyard
Company: Tolerx
Based: Cambridge, MA
Scoop: A few years ago Tolerx would have been an unlikely company to appear in this report. Its monoclonal antibody for type 1 diabetes, called otelixizumab, helped the company land a rich pact in 2007 with GlaxoSmithKline worth $760 million. The deal included $70 million in upfront cash.
The two parteners headed in to Phase III trials with high expectations. But those hopes were dashed when otelixizumab failed to hit the primary efficacy endpoint of change in C-peptide at month 12 in patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes. Layoffs followed in March and May of this year.
Sources told FierceBiotech in October that Tolerx was officially closing up shop after spending about a decade doing R&D on drugs for immune-related disorders. Tolerx was selling off its earlier-stage assets, sources said, and GSK had taken over development of otelixizumab.




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