ChemoCentryx plunges as partnered drug candidate fails to meet endpoints

US drug developer ChemoCentryx (Nasdaq: CCXI) saw its shares plummet 31.6% to $7.99 last Friday (August 23), when development partner UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) revealed that the first of four Phase III studies, the SHIELD-1 study, investigating vercirnon, an inhibitor of the chemokine receptor known as CCR9, in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease did not achieve the primary endpoint of improvement in clinical response and the key secondary endpoint of clinical remission.

The rates of serious adverse events and withdrawals due to adverse events were similar among the treatment groups, but there was a trend for dose-dependent increases in overall adverse event rates. GSK says it will continue to explore the safety and efficacy results to inform decisions about the clinical development program for vercirnon. New recruitment and dosing in the ongoing clinical program has been suspended pending further review of the SHIELD-1 results.

“The results from the SHIELD-1 study are clearly disappointing but we are committed to further explore the data to determine the way forward to help patients with this chronic debilitating gastrointestinal disease,” commented Paul-Peter Tak, senior vice president, GSK Immuno-inflammation R&D.