August 12, 2016 (Last Updated: 11:30 a.m. PT)
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
VANCOUVER – Following ProNAi Therapeutics’ decision to suspend development of a failed cancer drug, the company announced this morning that it had shut down the a Michigan research facility that was supporting that drug.
ProNAi made the announcement in its second quarterly report for 2016. James Smith, vice president of corporate affairs at ProNAi, said the staff reduction was “relatively small,” amounting to “less than 10 employees.”
Although some publications hinted at other layoffs, Smith said the company is not contemplating any additional layoffs.
“ProNAi is focused a building a pipeline of oncology assets and advancing this pipeline, and to be suitably staffed to execute on this strategy,” Smith said in an email to BioSpace.
The failed trial, dubbed Wolverine 2, was studying the experimental treatment, PNT2258 for the treatment of relapsed or refractory (r/r) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Phase II data revealed the drug showed “modest efficacy,” but not “robust enough to justify continued development,” the company said in June. In March, PNT2258 won Orphan Drug Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The drug had earlier received a similar designation from the European Commission in August 2015.
In addition to the treatment of lymphoma, PNT2258 was being studied in patients with Richter’s Transformation. Five subjects had been enrolled in that study, but four dropped out.
ProNAi said it incurred $2.8 million in one-time restructuring expenses related to the closure of PNT2258.
With the failure or PNT2258, ProNAi is now focused on the development of its new $900,000 cancer asset, PNT141, a selective and orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of the Cdc7 kinase.
“Our goal is to build a broad pipeline consisting primarily of assets that leverage discoveries on the leading edge of cancer biology. PNT141 highlights this strategy as Cdc7 has a central function in both DNA replication and DNA damage response, two mechanisms that are increasingly recognized as having critical roles in driving cancer,” Nick Glover, president and chief executive officer of ProNAi Therapeutics, said in a statement.
Glover said the company is conducting “a robust preclinical assessment of PNT141” as the company prepares for the new asset to enter clinical trials.
In its filing, ProNAi said it incurred a net loss of $12.9 million compared to a net loss of $15.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2015. The company said it has cash and cash equivalents of $130.6, down from $150.2 million in cash and cash equivalents at Dec. 31, 2015.
