After key clinical trials failed last year, troubled Tranzyme ($TZYM) is seeking "strategic alternatives" for its business. On the table are potential options such as a merger or company sale--anything to bring value to shareholders.
The Research Triangle Park, NC-based biotech has brought in Stifel as financial adviser for the process. No longer in possession of promising clinical-stage programs, the company's press release highlighted two preclinical candidates--one for chemo-induced diarrhea and the other for metabolic illnesses--among its key assets.
As Reuters noted, Tranzyme's shares have tanked 86% since the biotech went public in April 2011 at $4. The shares traded at 56 cents, valuing the company at $15 million.
It's an uninspiring and unsurprising state of affairs. In December Tranzyme revealed that a Phase IIb study of its candidate TZP-102 failed to show enough efficacy in diabetic patients struck with gastroparesis, a stomach ailment that causes nausea and other unsettling symptoms.
In the first half of last year the company reported the failures of two Phase III studies of its candidate ulimorelin in speeding GI recovery for patients had bowel surgeries.
- here's the release
- see Reuters article
Special Report: Tranzyme Pharma - Biotech IPOs of 2011