Roche stops olesoxime development, citing 'difficulties'

4 June 2018

Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) has announced its decision to stop the development of olesoxime, a neuroprotective drug that showed benefit in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), via a statement to TreatSMA (Treat Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which the latter has re-released to the wider community.

TreatSMA says it is disappointed that olesoxime, a drug that once held a lot of promise for the entire SMA community, will no longer see the light of day. “We remain hopeful that the promise offered by the new treatments that have since been developed will make our dream of an effective therapy a reality,” it stated.

In its letter to members of the SMA community, Roche revealed that, since its upfront 120 million euros ($140 million at current exchange rates) payment to acquire privately-held French biotech firm Trophos in 2015, it has had many difficulties in developing this molecule for people with SMA. The acquisition was worth up to 470 million euros dependent on the achievement of certain predetermined milestones.

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