Canada's Wex Pharmaceuticals has halted further enrollment in a Phase IIb/III trial of tetrodotoxin for cancer pain and will begin looking for a subset of patients who could benefit from the therapy. The move came at the recommendation of the data monitoring committee, which saw no safety issues but determined that primary efficacy results were unfavorable. Its announcement sent the company's stock into a tailspin this morning. Layoffs are also in the offing.
"We are obviously disappointed by the recommendation following this interim analysis but will evaluate further the study data to increase our knowledge on the pharmacology of Tectin and identify new opportunities," said Dr. Jean Bourgouin, chief medical officer of the company.
- here's the release