Bristol Myers Squibb
disclosed
Thursday at its R&D Day that it cut six programs, including mid-stage drug candidates for NASH and solid tumors.
The New Jersey pharma company axed an siRNA for NASH, known as HSP47, which it licensed from Nitto Denko for $100 million upfront in 2016. Bristol Myers completed a Phase II study in 2019 investigating the therapy in patients with advanced liver fibrosis, or scar tissue buildup, after they were cured of hepatitis C. It had tested two different doses versus placebo in 61 patients, but both doses failed to make a difference in liver scarring compared to placebo, according to
results in the federal clinical trials database
.