Glaxo Pulls Out Of Synta Cancer Drug Collaboration

LEXINGTON, Mass. (AP) — Biotechnology company Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. said Monday its partner GlaxoSmithKline decided to end a collaboration over the cancer drug candidate elesclomol.

The move comes less than a month after that drug failed to meet its treatment goal in a late-stage clinical trial focusing on metastatic melanoma, which are tumors mainly found in the skin.

The collaboration will end by Sept. 10, Synta said. Worldwide rights on the drug candidate will revert to Synta, while Synta may pay GlaxoSmithKline a low single-digit royalty on any potential future sales of the drug.

"We appreciate GlaxoSmithKline's contributions to this program and understand their decision," said Synta President and Chief Executive Safi R. Bahcall in a statement.

In the study, patients who were treated with a combination of elesclomol and the chemotherapy agent paclitaxel lived longer than those who were treated with paclitaxel alone, but the difference was not statistically significant.

The study had been suspended in February because of a high rate of death in patients taking elesclomol. But the company said those deaths couldn't be explained by toxicities attributable to the drug.

Bahcall said Synta will continue to evaluate elesclomol's potential, but will focus resources on other programs in its drug development portfolio.