After reaching out to more than 200 companies to partner a Tourette syndrome therapy that showed the ability to beat standard of care last year, Asarina Pharma has come up empty and will fold.
The company asked shareholders to vote to liquidate in a notice posted Monday, the culmination of more than a year of effort to find a savior for the treatment called sepranolone.
The Swedish company revealed in April 2023 that the therapy reduced tic severity at 12 weeks by 28% according to a common rating scale of disease severity called the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), compared to 12.6% in patients who received standard of care. The phase 2a study also hit key secondary endpoints, including improving quality of life, and there were no systemic side effects observed. The open-label study randomized 28 patients to receive the experimental medicine or standard of care, with 17 receiving sepranolone.
But those results were not enough to secure a partner, despite a grand effort from the Asarina team. In a proposal to liquidate issued July 18, the company said 200 parties had been contacted with 20 entities expressing interest in a potential in-licensing or acquisition deal. Several went as far as conducting due diligence on the clinical data.
But none of those talks resulted in an offer.
Asarina also explored a capital raise “but unfortunately has been forced to conclude that conditions for this are missing,” according to the notice. The company currently has equity of -635,000 Swedish kronor (-$59,000).
“In light of the company's financial and commercial situation … the board of directors sees no alternative but to propose a winding up of the company's operations in an orderly manner, which can be done through a liquidation,” the notice explained.
A meeting will be held in August to consider the plan to wrap up, with a liquidation date slated for Dec. 1.
”After more than 15 years of R&D development and more than 15 months of partnering activities, it is disappointing that we have not been able to find a new home for sepranolone. We still believe that the compound has the potential to be an effective drug for Tourette's syndrome and other neurological disorders,” said board Chairman Paul De Potocki in a statement.
While drug development in Tourette syndrome has not seen a lot of action in recent years, at least one biotech is working on it. Emalex Biosciences published phase 2b data last year for a candidate called ecopipam showing a 30% reduction on the YGTSS. The company did not detail placebo results but said the 30% value represented a significant reduction in the total number of tics compared to placebo.
Ecopipam also had a different safety profile, showing adverse events including headache in 15% of recipients, insomnia in 15%, fatigue in 8% and drowsiness in 8%.
Emalex raised a massive $250 million in series D funds in 2022, which was to be used to fund a phase 3 test. That trial is now underway as of March 2023.