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Today, a brief rundown of news involving Praxis Medicines and Bristol Myers Squibb, as well as updates from Eli Lilly and Zevra Therapeutics.
Shares in Praxis Precision Medicines fell by nearly 40% in Friday morning trading after the biotechnology company disclosed that trial monitors overseeing a Phase 3 study of its top drug recommended testing be stopped for “futility.” According to Praxis, the monitors informed the company that results were “unlikely to meet the primary efficacy endpoint under the parameters set by the statistical model.” Yet Praxis, which said it was “surprised and disappointed” by this finding, has chosen to continue the study as well as another also underway to obtain final results. The drug, called ulixacaltamide, is being tested as treatment for essential tremor. — Ned Pagliarulo
Bristol Myers Squibb is laying off 223 more employees in Lawrence Township, N.J., according to a WARN notice. The cuts, which have effective dates stretching from May to August, follow plans revealed earlier this month to lay off 67 workers in New Jersey. Each of those restructuring moves are part of a cost-cutting initiative Bristol Myers announced last year and has since broadened in the hopes of saving $2 billion in annual expenses by the end of 2027. In an email to BioPharma Dive, a spokesperson said the affected employees were previously notified and that the WARN notice’s effective dates reflect their final days of employment. — Delilah Alvarado
Eli Lilly will hunt for molecular glue drugs together with Magnet Biomedicine, the companies said Friday. The deal hands Magnet up to $40 million in upfront and near-term milestones, as well as an equity investment. Magnet could earn up to $1.25 billion more if it hits certain R&D and commercialization milestones. Magnet is making molecular glues, a type of drug that forces two proteins together to modify or eliminate harmful proteins. “In the world of oncology and immunology, providing tissue specificity and targeting hard-to-drug proteins is really where our glue technology is going to make its mark,” Magnet CEO Brian Safina said in an interview. — Gwendolyn Wu
Zevra Therapeutics has sold a priority review voucher for $150 million to an unspecified buyer, capitalizing on the regulatory “fast pass” that it won upon Food and Drug Administration approval of its medicine Miplyffa for Niemann-Pick disease type C. The deal follows a flurry of sales of other vouchers, which now seem to regularly fetch $150 million or so after a long stretch during which their value dropped to around $100 million. Zevra plans to invest the proceeds in the launches of Miplyffa and Olpruva, a treatment for urea cycle disorders. — Ned Pagliarulo