Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

KERX was a textbook case of program-survival bias, IMO, and an unusual twist on Zebra’s Law.

A few years ago, Sulonex was on the scrap heap and no one wanted it. Then KERX brought in a new CEO who talked it to the moon, got the stock price to pop, and exploited the pop to raise money for the clinical trials. When the phase-2 results came out, the drug showed no real efficacy, but the CEO again talked it to the moon (#msg-8565733, #msg-8472608).

At this point, a Big Pharma would probably have dropped the Sulonex program, but Zebra’s Law mandated that KERX proceed to phase-3 because it had no other program to support the stock.

Amusingly, KERX released the tepid phase-2 data on a Friday evening in 2005 (#msg-8472608) and they did the same tonight for the failure in phase-3.