Amgen’s move to drop MP0310, one of four Molecular Partners darpin projects currently in clinical trials, completed a double whammy of bad news for the Swiss biotech yesterday.

Earlier in the day Novartis revealed that another of Molecular Partners’ clinical-stage darpins, the Covid antiviral ensovibep, would require a phase 3 trial to be carried out before it could be given US emergency use authorisation. Not only does this cast doubt over the viability of this asset, questions might again be raised over the entire darpin approach.

Nearly two months after getting the boot from the NIH’s ACTIV-3 study over a failed futility analysis, Novartis and Molecular Partners are back with mid-stage results they say prove their Covid-19 antiviral works better in patients who aren’t hospitalized — and CEO Vas Narasimhan likes what he sees.

Ensovibep has become the latest Covid-19 treatment candidate to crash out of the NIH-sponsored Activ-3 basket trial, wiping 34% off Molecular Partners’ share price. A planned futility analysis of the cohort evaluating ensovibep, a darpin Molecular Partners licensed to Novartis, concluded that enrolment should be stopped. Activ-3 is looking at potential therapies for hospitalised patients, but no agent in the trial has yet succeeded. The study's clinicaltrials.gov entry was also edited this month to state that Astrazeneca’s MAb combo AZD7442 was no longer being administered either, but no explanation has been offered for this. 

One of the programs that headlined AbbVie’s $63 billion acquisition of Allergan is being returned to its developers after an FDA rejection last year.

AbbVie has terminated the license and collaboration agreement it had with Switzerland’s Molecular Partners for abicipar, the companies announced Monday, an experimental drug aimed to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. Abicipar was rejected by the FDA in June 2020 due to what AbbVie said was an unfavorable benefit-risk ratio, according to its description of the CRL.

One of the busiest IPO weeks of the year has capped off with another four biotechs expected to make their public debuts Friday.

After Lyell, Verve and Molecular Partners all priced earlier in the week, ATAI Life Sciences, Century Therapeutics, Ambrx Biopharma and Cyteir Therapeutics each followed suit with nine-figure raises after market close Thursday. All that effort has driven the combined biotech IPO raise close to $9 billion, per the Endpoints News tally.

Molecular Partners has priced its IPO, setting it up to raise $63.8 million to fund work on oncology and infectious disease candidates. The IPO haul is set to fall well short of the original target after a five-day period in which the biotech’s share price in Switzerland fell 17%.

The EMPHATHY clinical trial will enroll patients with COVID-19 to test the drug’s effectiveness in preventing worsening of symptoms and hospitalization.

Swiss biotech company Molecular Partners announced yesterday it has filed for a $100 million initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S., funding which will go toward supporting the company's work in the development of protein-based treatments for COVID-19 and various cancers. 

Novartis is spending $69 million upfront on a pair of experimental drugs from Fierce 15 winner Molecular Partners.

The deal is for MP0420 and MP0423, two antivirals out of the biotech’s so-called DARPin tech, which Molecular Partners says has “multi-specific target binding with the potential to prevent viral escape via mutations, the possibility for subcutaneous administration, long half-life for sustained activity, the potential to bypass cold storage and typically high-yield, highly scalable production in bacterial fermenters.”

Allergan, fresh off getting acquired by AbbVie, disclosed Friday that the Food and Drug Administration decided not to approve an eye medicine the company once viewed as integral to its future growth.