Johnson & Johnson scrapped its Phase 3 program for aticaprant, an experimental and new type of major depressive disorder drug, following “insufficient efficacy,” the pharma giant
disclosed
late Thursday evening.
The drugmaker was trying to bring to market a type of drug called a kappa opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist, which is meant to hit upon the reward processing and dopamine pathways.
It follows a major setback from its main KOR competitor, Neumora, which
flunked
the first of its three Phase 3 trials in January and last week said it
paused the other two studies
to adjust them for a shot at better outcomes.
AbbVie also has a KOR antagonist (by way of its
Cerevel acquisition
) named icalcaprant. A Phase 2 study of the drug, for forms of bipolar disorder, is
listed
as “not yet recruiting” in the US clinical trials registry.
“[T]his is a big blow to the thesis for KORAs, in our view,” Stifel analyst Paul Matteis wrote in a Thursday evening note to clients. Matteis said the decision came as a surprise since J&J was running a “very conservative” Phase 3 program with “large over-powered studies,” including an additional Phase 3 that was initiated in the fall.
Two months ago, J&J doubled down in neuroscience with its proposed $14.6 billion
acquisition
of Intra-Cellular Therapies, which makes the marketed brain health treatment called Caplyta. A few weeks later, J&J’s global head of pharma R&D, John Reed, said the pharmaceutical and medical device conglomerate would not deprioritize its clinical-stage depression medicines, including aticaprant and seltorexant, as a result of the megadeal.
“On the other hand, in retrospect,” Matteis wrote in the note, “there was JNJ’s recent decision to acquire ITCI, which may have been executed by JNJ to further their leadership in CNS under the concern that aticaprant could fail.”
The setback could mark a slight dent in J&J’s future neuro prospects. The company has previously projected $1 billion to $5 billion in peak annual sales for aticaprant. In neuro, the drugmaker also markets the esketamine depression treatment called Spravato, which
eclipsed $1 billion in sales
for the first time last year.
In a Thursday evening note, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said his firm had been modeling 2032 sales of aticaprant at $1.1 billion, or less than 1% of the healthcare company’s total revenue estimates for that year.
Despite the setback in the Phase 3 program for the adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder, J&J said it “will explore future development opportunities” for the late-stage asset in “other areas of high unmet need.”
J&J said aticaprant was “safe and well-tolerated, and no new safety signals were identified.” The company plans to present a more complete look at the so-called VENTURA program at an undisclosed medical meeting.