Synta Says Cancer Drug Did Not Meet Study Goal

LEXINGTON, Mass. (AP) — Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. said Monday its drug candidate elesclomol did not meet its primary goal in a clinical trial that tested the drug as a treatment for metastatic melanoma.

Shares of Synta dropped $1.14, or 27.4 percent, to close at $3.02 on Monday.

The late-stage trial combined elesclomol and the chemotherapy agent paclitaxel. Synta said patients who were treated with that combination did live longer than those who were treated with paclitaxel alone, but the difference was not statistically significant.

Synta said patients who had normal levels of lactate dehydrogenase, an enzyme that is linked to melanoma, experienced a significant benefit in progression-free survival. PFS is a measurement of how long patients survived before their cancer began to spread again.

The trial was suspended in February because more patients treated with elesclomol died, although the company said those deaths can't yet be explained by organ-specific toxicities attributable to the drug. Full data on patient survival is expected by the end of this year or in early 2010.