Novacea dumps Asentar, focuses on merger

Last November, Novacea halted its Phase III trial of the prostate cancer drug Asentar, citing an "imbalance of death" between the two study arms. Today the FDA has released the clinical hold on the Asentar IND application, but it's too late. Novacea announced that it won't continue development of the drug. "We welcome the FDA's response regarding their release of the clinical hold on Asentar," stated Novacea CEO John Walker. "Following the exciting news last week regarding our proposed merger with Transcept Pharmaceuticals, and the related new direction for Novacea, we have no plans for further development of Asentar."

- see Novacea's release

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