EyePoint to halve workforce after experimental drug fails second late-stage trial (updated)

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Mon 13:08

Adds share movement, analyst comment
Oct 19 (Reuters) - EyePoint EYPT.O on Monday said it would cut about 53% of its  workforce and stop studies of its experimental drug for an age-related vision disease after a second late-stage trial failed.
Its shares tanked more than 75% in premarket trading. 
The trial tested EyePoint's Duravyu against Regeneron's REGN.O blockbuster eye medicine Eylea in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older adults
While patients given Duravyu showed improved vision, the drug failed to prove as effective as the standard treatment in preserving eyesight, EyePoint said
The company had 214 full-time US employees as of February 27, according to a regulatory filing
The setback follows a similar failure in August, when Duravyu missed the main goal in an identical late-stage study
JonesTrading analyst Debanjana Chatterjee said she does not "see an immediate regulatory path forward in wet AMD despite strong secondary endpoint results," following the failures
EyePoint expects reducing the workforce and ending trials to save about $30 million annually, despite roughly $9 million in severance charges 
It added it would shift focus to developing Duravyu for diabetic macular edema, another retinal disease, with late-stage trial results expected in late 2027

 (Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Joyjeet Das)
 ((Kamal.Choudhury@thomsonreuters.com;))