Biotech, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Drugs

Zymo Drug Fails Arthritis Trials

Luke Timmerman 9/10/09

ZymoGenetics (NASDAQ: ZGEN), the Seattle-based biotech company, said today in a regulatory filing that the atacicept drug it developed and licensed to Merck KGaA has failed to reach its goal of controlling rheumatoid arthritis in a pair of mid-stage clinical trials. The study confirmed the biological effect of atacicept, and researchers saw no unexpected side effects. Studies are still ongoing of atacicept for two other autoimmune diseases—lupus and multiple sclerosis, the company said.

Luke Timmerman is the National Biotechnology Editor for Xconomy. You can e-mail him at ltimmerman@xconomy.com, call 206-624-2374, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ldtimmerman.