FibroGen’s two-year rough streak continued on Tuesday as the San Francisco-based biotech said its prostate cancer drug pamrevlumab failed two late-stage trials.
As a result, the biotech said it is laying off about 75% of its US workforce and axing R&D work on the experimental anti-CTGF monoclonal antibody, which it has been testing for years in a variety of disease areas. As of Dec. 31, the company employed 486 people, inclusive of sites in the US and China.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many employees would be impacted. FibroGen will present its quarterly update on Aug. 6.
The company’s share price $FGEN nearly halved in after-hours trading.
“Heading into the readout, we believe investors had exceedingly low expectations for pamrevlumab in pancreatic cancer following several clinical setbacks in both idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy,” William Blair analyst Andy Hsieh wrote in a Tuesday evening note. Hsieh also said “pancreatic cancer has historically been challenging for drug developers.”
The move follows a bleak period for FibroGen.
AstraZeneca said goodbye to the US portion of a pact for FibroGen’s FDA-rejected anemia drug roxadustat earlier this year. They kept the deal in other regions, including China, where it’s approved. Last summer, FibroGen’s investigational medicines failed late-stage studies in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and certain myelodysplastic syndromes.
Thane WettigIt then laid off about one-third of its staff, or about 104 employees in the US, last July. A new CEO, Thane Wettig, joined the company within weeks of the downsizing.
“We are deeply disappointed that the pamrevlumab arm in the Precision Promise trial and the LAPIS trial did not meet the primary endpoint of overall survival,” Wettig said in the Tuesday announcement.
The biotech is attempting a turnaround by way of a partner. It’s in Phase 1 with a CD46-targeting antibody-drug conjugate known as FG-3246.