Shares of Nuvelo took a serious thrashing this morning after it announced that two late-stage trials for Alfimeprase--an experimental blood clot dissolver--failed to hit either their primary or secondary endpoints. The failure sent its shares into a tail-spin, shearing more than 80 percent off its value. The trials had aimed to provide data on the avoidance of open vascular surgery within 30 days of treatment and also on catheter occlusion. The CEO of Nuvelo, Ted Love, said that the company would be in talks with the FDA and Bayer, its German development partner, to determine how to proceed. This is more bad news for Bayer, which announced negative data for its oncology drug Nexavar last week. Bayer had signed a development pact with Nuvelo that was worth up to $385 million for all rights outside of the U.S. The company had been hoping for regulatory approval in 2008.
- check out the press release
- read the report on the aftermath from TheStreet.com