Two years after Idorsia and Neurocrine’s calcium channel blocker flunked a pair of phase 2 studies in quick succession, the biotechs have finally decided to part ways.
Idorsia had initially taken the candidate, dubbed NBI-827104, into the clinic on the strength of evidence that the molecule could enter the brain and block channels associated with epilepsies. Neurocrine took an interest in 2019, paying a $5 million fee to form a collaboration before handing over a further $45 million the following year to take up its option on the program.
But it wasn’t long before that money looked like a bad bet, when the T-type calcium channel blocker missed the primary endpoint of a phase 2 trial in essential tremor, leading Neurocrine to ax its tremor program altogether.
Doubts about the asset were confirmed later in 2022 when NBI-827104 was also unable to best placebo in a phase 2 study of pediatric epileptic encephalopathy with continuous spike-and-wave during sleep.
In a statement following the second of those midstage trial misses, Neurocrine Chief Medical Officer Eiry Roberts, M.D., said the company would continue to “analyze the rich data set generated from this study to determine next steps.”
Fast-forward to Idorsia’s third-quarter earnings release this morning, and the Swiss biotech confirmed that after a further analysis of the open-label extension to the epilepsy study, the companies had made the call to halt any further work on NBI-827104, which is also known as ACT-709478.
“As a result, the development agreement has come to an end,” Idorsia said.