Merck & Co. Inc., building on a year-old deal with Aligos Therapeutics Inc., has moved to in-license an early stage nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) oligonucleotide program Aligos had previously advanced independently. The amended deal also gives Merck the right to add a new NASH target to the partnership, in addition to those already part of the agreement. With Aligos eligible to receive up to $460 million in development and commercialization milestones as well as tiered royalties on net sales per target, its rewards could reach $1.38 billion.
Discouraging news from two trials with lirentelimab slammed shares of Allakos Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLK), which ended the day at $8.55, down $75.84, or almost 90%. The Redwood City, Calif.-based firm reported data from Enigma 2, a phase III study in patients with biopsy-confirmed eosinophilic gastritis and/or eosinophilic duodenitis, and Kryptos, a phase II/III experiment in biopsy-confirmed eosinophilic esophagitis. Both experiments met their histologic co-primary endpoints but fell short of statistical significance on patient-reported symptomatic co-primary goals.
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