Epizyme plummets as tazemetostat studies stall

3 August 2018

US biotech Epizyme (Nasdaq: EPZM) lost 24% of its market value on Thursday after announcing a partial clinical hold impacting its lead candidate, tazemetostat.

This orally administered, first-in-class small molecule EZH2 inhibitor is currently in Phase II development for multiple types of hematological malignancies and genetically defined solid tumors. Epizyme holds rights to the drug outside Japan and Japanese drugmaker Eisai (TYO: 4523) is the license holder in its home country and has the option to extend this to the rest of Asia.

A partial clinical hold pausing the enrollment of new patients into tazemetostat clinical trials was implemented in the second quarter of 2018 in the USA, France and Germany following a safety report of a single pediatric patient who developed a secondary T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.

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