NexMed tanks after Novartis stalls on fungus drug

Shares of NexMed tanked after the company announced late Tuesday that Novartis would not be submitting an NDA for their partnered nail fungus therapy "at this time." According to NexMed, Novartis was persuaded to pull back after considering the results of late-stage studies. NexMed's stock quickly nosedived, losing 96 cents--or a little more than 70 percent of its value.

Novartis took control of the development program for NM100060 back in 2005 after paying $4 million as an upfront fee and agreeing to up to $47 million in milestone payments. But NexMed hasn't given up on the program.

"While this is disappointing," said Vivian Liu, NexMed's president and CEO, "a European comparator study is still ongoing, and those results are expected mid-2009."

- see NexMed's release
- check out the AP story

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