DUBLIN – Shares in Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. were down 40% by midday Dec. 9 on news that it was terminating a pivotal phase III trial of its allogeneic, placenta-derived cell therapy, PLX-PAD, in critical limb ischemia (CLI), following a futility analysis, which concluded that the study would be unlikely to meet its primary endpoint.

HONG KONG – New approaches to trials, digitalization and the effective use of advance technologies like artificial intelligence are reshaping how clinical trials are conducted, drugs are discovered, and new devices are developed, said participants at the Asia-focused Phar-East 2020 conference on Dec. 8.

Questions of durability came up regarding Curis Inc.’s latest data with CA-4948, but that didn’t stop shares from soaring to $6.55 by day’s end, an increase of $5.11, or 355%. The ride came after Lexington, Mass.-based Curis rolled out positive preliminary data from the firm’s ongoing open-label, single-arm phase I dose-escalation study with the compound.

Israeli cell therapy specialist Neurogenesis Ltd., said new phase II data has shown that treatment with its autologous cell therapy candidate NG-01 in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) patients led to an 80% to 90% reduction in disease progression at 12 months compared to a pretreatment period and a 90% reduction in relapses compared to placebo-treated patients.

New phase III data on Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s TAK-620 (maribavir) for the treatment of transplant recipients with tough-to-treat cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections met the trial's primary endpoint, setting the company up to file an NDA for the oral antiviral in the first half of next year.