Staff Writer

Partner-forsaken Icagen Inc.'s upward stock ride on top-line Phase IIa news in allergic asthma with senicapoc gives the firm a leg up during its ongoing exploration of strategic alternatives, and just might lure pain collaborator Pfizer Inc. to the table for takeover talks.

"I wouldn't rule that out as a possibility," said Richard D. Katz, chief financial officer of Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Icagen.

Research funding for pain research from Pfizer (soon to merge with Wyeth, of Madison, N.J.) was slated to end this month, but the deal was extended for six weeks, Katz said.

"We're in the process of discussing with them a renewal that would extend for another year," he said.

As of June 30, Icagen had about $24 million in cash and cash equivalents, enough to operate "for at least the next 12 months," the company said in its quarterly financial filing, but will need to raise money to operate beyond that time.

Shares of Icagen (NASDAQ:ICGN) closed Tuesday at $1.43, up 47 cents, or 49 percent, on word that the KCa3.1 channel blocker significantly reduced asthma over placebo in patients given an inhaled allergen.

Senicapoc fizzled in Phase III against sickle cell anemia two years ago, with Icagen stopping the trial after a monitoring board found the study unlikely to yield positive data.

"We had efficacy in terms of many of the secondary endpoints, but didn't hit the primary endpoint, the control of crises," Katz said, adding that senicapoc was "clearly demonstrating biologic activity."

The targeted channel is expressed on red blood cells and white blood cells. Dehydration of red blood cells was the problem Icagen sought to solve in sickle cell disease. "In terms of effects on white blood cells [in immune disorders], the channel becomes very important in controlling the influx of calcium, even though it's a potassium channel," Katz said.

Results in the 34-patient, UK asthma trial were determined by the drop in FEV1, the volume of air that can be forcibly exhaled in one second. Improvement in the average FEV1 decline was 29 percent (p = 0.06). In the maximum decline, the number was 18 percent (p = 0.15), the area under the curve amounted to 28 percent (p = 0.08) of FEV1.

A secondary endpoint, the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (a measure of airway inflammation, typically high in asthmatic patients), dropped by 24 percent (p = 0.10) among drug patients compared to those on placebo. Another secondary endpoint - early asthmatic response - didn't change, a finding in line with preclinical results.

Senicapoc was well tolerated, with no serious adverse events. Icagen plans to offer full results at an upcoming scientific conference.

Meanwhile, the company has finished enrollment in a 69-patient U.S. trial testing senicapoc in exercise-induced asthma, with the same FEV1 endpoint. Data are expected in the fourth quarter of this year.

In June, Icagen signed J.P. Morgan to help figure out next steps. Senicapoc's 2007 failure in sickle cell was followed by the loss of the related deals with McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson.

Shortly afterward, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, backed away, deciding not to pursue development of the lead compound discovered in a long-standing deal targeting atrial fibrillation.

Better news followed in the same year, when New York-based Pfizer inked a potential $1 billion-plus deal to develop sodium ion channel modulators for pain, one of the pharma giant's stated high-priority therapeutic areas. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 15, 2007.)

Outside of oncology, pain is considered by some as Pfizer's biggest zone of interest. The firm "doesn't jump to mind when you think of the major asthma companies," Katz conceded, but said he "would be surprised if they didn't have ongoing efforts in inflammatory indications, if not asthma" itself.

Other large and "modest-sized" would-be partners have expressed an interest in senicapoc, Katz told BioWorld Today. "I'm not concerned that pharma is shying away from asthma," he added, especially since the drug - unlike most existing therapies - is orally delivered.

Partnering likely will wait until the next Phase II data become available and maybe later, when the "multi-thousand-patient" Phase III asthma studies require deeper pockets, Katz said.