Shares in RTP-based drug firm Tranzyme Pharma fell sharply Monday after the company disclosed another drug test failure.
Before the markets opened Monday, Tranzyme (Nasdaq:TZYM) said it was “discontinuing and immediately ending patient enrollment” in a Phase 2b clinical trial of a drug candidate designed to treat diabetes-related inability to digest food.
TZP-102 tests will stop “due to insufficient efficacy,” the company reported.
“The decision followed a planned interim futility analysis, which examined patients’ responsiveness to thrice daily oral dosing of 10mg of TZP-102 or placebo at the end of weeks 4 and 8 of a 12 week trial,” it added in a statement. “The results are consistent with the findings of a prior Phase 2b trial in that there was a very large placebo effect and no treatment effect.”
Shares fell as low as 56 cents Monday and traded at 63 cents in late-morning trading – a drop of nearly 15 percent.
Just a month ago, shares in Tranzyme plunged Nov. 15 after the company announced failure of the same compound that it hoped would treat diabetics suffering from gastroparesis, or trouble digesting food.
Tranzyme disclosed the failure of its TZP-102 compound in one of two Phase 2 clinical trials before the markets opened that day. Shares closed at 95 cents from the previous close of $3.97.
That November failure was the second this year for Tranzyme.
Tranzyme recently raised $10 million through a stock offering.
Tranzyme is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel, mechanism-based therapeutics for the treatment of upper gastrointestinal motility disorders.
