Idenix Pharmaceuticals, a developer of antiviral drugs based in Cambridge, MA, has seen the value of its stock plunge after it announced today that the FDA put two of its drugs for the liver disease hepatitis C on clinical hold. In testing a combination treatment of the two drugs IDX184 and IDX320 in healthy volunteers, the company (NASDAQ:IDIX) found elevated liver toxicity in three people who received both drugs. Those cases prompted the FDA to notify Idenix on September 3 that the drugs were put on clinical hold, which is an order the agency makes to suspend or delay clinical studies of certain drugs. The firm’s stock was down 48.08 percent to $3.11 per share as of 1:21 pm Eastern time.

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Light Sciences Oncology, a Bellevue, WA-based developer of cancer drugs, said it has completed enrollment of 200 patients with liver tumors in a clinical trial. The goal of the study is to see whether patients live longer after they get LitX. The company’s treatment is designed to use a light-emitting diode, threaded inside a tumor, to activate a drug to kill tumors within its wavelength. If the trial reaches it goal, the company plans to ask regulators in the U.S. and Europe for marketing approval in 2009.

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