Assistant Managing Editor

Although Icagen Inc.'s senicapoc seemed to have shaken off a previous failure in sickle cell disease with promising Phase II data in allergic asthma earlier this year, the Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based firm decided to end work on the KCa3.1 channel blocker after a second Phase II trial in exercise-induced asthma missed its endpoint.

The news, perhaps all the more disappointing in the wake of the successful UK trial in allergic asthma, sent shares of Icagen (NASDAQ:ICGN) falling 37.6 percent, or 29 cents, to close Tuesday at 48 cents.

"At this time, we don't plan for any more asthma trials," said Richard Katz, the firm's chief financial officer. "That's not to say that another company might not be interested [in pursuing] the drug in other trials, but Icagen does not have the resources to do that."

The company ended the second quarter with about $24 million in cash, stating, at that time, funds would last at least one year. "And I don't think [ending senicapoc development] reduces that," Katz told BioWorld Today. "If anything, we'll be spending less."

Last month, Icagen, which brought J.P. Morgan on board in June to help review strategic alternatives, gained a bit more breathing room when New York-based Pfizer Inc. agreed to extend a sodium ion channel collaboration, providing $5 million over the next year, with Icagen eligible for more than $1 billion in potential milestones if all three selected candidates make it to market. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 22, 2009.)

Senicapoc has had a rough time since 2007, when a data monitoring committee recommended a Phase III of senicapoc (then known as ICA-17043) in sickle cell disease trial be terminated due to a low probability of hitting the primary endpoint.

The firm then thought asthma might prove a more likely indication for the drug, which is believed to target the IK channel expressed on cells involved in inflammation and cell proliferation.

Results from the 34-patient trial in allergic asthma seemed to be a promising sign. Those data showed an improvement in the average FEV1 decline was 29 percent. FEV1 measures the volume of air than can be forcibly exhaled in one second. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 2, 2009.)

But senicapoc failed to demonstrated improvement in FEV1 decrease, as well as on other endpoints, including time to recovery of FEV1 after exercise and area under the FEV1 curve for 60 minutes in the 69-patient, placebo-controlled Phase II trial in exercise-induced asthma.

"Those are different types of asthma, so it's very hard to say" why one trial succeeded and one failed, Katz said.

Icagen said it plans to continue evaluating the data, but has not released any specific details, including whether there might have been a higher-than-expected placebo response similar to the one that foiled a pediatric asthma study of Mountain View, Calif.-based Map Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s unit dose budesonide early this year. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 25, 2009.)

Katz said Icagen has investigated senicapoc in other preclinical and clinical indications but has opted to shift focus to other pipeline products such as ICA-105665, an opener of the KCNQ ion channel that has shown activity in preclinical models of epilepsy and neuropathic pain.

The company started two Phase IIa studies last month, one in photosensitive epilepsy and the other in pain.

"And we have research programs with novel targets directed at pain and inflammation and at other CNS disorders," Katz said. "So we do think the company has a rich pipeline, despite this setback."