Shares in the Duke spin-out have reached a new all-time low.
Regado Biosciences, a drug developer spun out of Duke University, witnessed its shares on Nasdaq crash once again when it had to announce it is terminating its clinical trial due to safety concerns.
Its shares first plunged to $2.60 in July when it announced a halt to the trial, and are now hovering around a new low of $1.11. This constitutes more than a 90% drop from its all-time high of $14.10.
The clinical trial causing the company such a heartache is Revolixys Kit. It had been undergoing a phase 3 trial dubbed Regulate-Pci, where it was being used by surgeons during procedures that involve the mechanical opening or widening or coronary arteries. The trial is being terminated after a significant percentage of the first 3,250 patients (out of an originally planned, eventual 13,200) exhibited severe allergic reactions.
Regado was set up in 2001 and only celebrated its initial public offering in August 2013. It raised $43m then, at $4 a share – down from the targeted $5. The company closed its latest round, a series E, in 2012, and currently has a total of $177m in funding. The total costs for the trial are estimated at $150m. The company was hoping its current funding would see it through to the first quarter of 2015, although that is now questionable.
David Mazzo, chief executive at Regado, said: “The Data and Safety Monitoring Board indicated that the level of serious allergic adverse events associated with Revolixys was of a frequency and severity such that they recommended that we do not enroll any further patients in the Regulate-Pci trial. We will now undertake a complete review of the unblinded database from Regulate-Pci which we expect will take several months to complete.”
