Idera Pharmaceuticals' only asset tilsotolimod has hit another roadblock as AbbVie axed further enrollment in a combo study of the drug and the biotech closed the door to new patients in its own study.
AbbVie will no longer enroll patients in a phase 1b study of Idera's drug in combination with the investigational monoclonal antibody dubbed ABBV-368. The Chicago-area pharma will continue treating and following up with current patients in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma study.
Meanwhile, Idera will not let more patients into its phase 2 trial looking at tilsotolimod in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb's Yervoy and Opdivo, the company said after market close Tuesday. Shares tanked 23% to 66 cents apiece as of 10:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
Idera said only one patient reported stable disease, and more than half a dozen others experienced progression in the trial. ILLUMINATE-206 tested the combo in previously treated patients with micro-satellite stable colorectal cancer.
RELATED: Idera's TLR9 drug flunks melanoma phase 3, tanking stock
This is the latest blunder for the TLR9 agonist. The drug failed to improve on Yervoy in a phase 3 melanoma trial in March. That nearly halved the company's value.
Tilsotolimod is also going through investigator-sponsored trials in melanoma and advanced cancers. VU University Medical Center Amsterdam is continuing enrollment in a melanoma study, and the Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus in Paris has finished dosing in the first part of a study in advanced cancers.
Now, Idera will pin its hopes on out-licensing the drug.
“While our clinical trials with tilsotolimod have not yet translated into a new treatment alternative for patients, data supporting tilsotolimod’s mechanism of action and encouraging safety profile from across the array of pre-clinical and clinical work to date, together with its intellectual property protection, are noteworthy,” said CEO Vincent Milano in a statement.
The goal is to out-license the treatment so it can be developed for patients who don't respond to traditional immunotherapy, the CEO continued.
The Exton, Pennsylvania, biotech is scouting for new development- or commercial-stage assets to bring into its portfolio and has so far been "encouraged by the opportunities" presented to the company, Milano said in Idera's third-quarter earnings report last month.