Billion dollar deal turns sour as Crohn's disease candidate fails

20 October 2017

Shares in New York-listed Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) are down a tenth today, following yesterday’s news that the company is to discontinue development of its Crohn's disease candidate GED-0301, or mongersen.

The drug was bought in 2014 from private Irish firm Nogra Pharma at an eye-watering upfront cost of $710 million, with the prospect of up to a billion dollars more following a successful product launch.

Now, the company detailed in an SEC filing that it expects to record a pre-tax write off of up to half a billion dollars, or between 27 and 45 cents per share. Half of that amount is comprised of a cash outlay.

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