Takeda and Mersana drop cancer drug development

Japanese pharma major Takeda (TYO: 4502) and US biotech Mersana (Nasdaq: MRSN) have given up on the development of XMT-1522, a drug that was linked to the death of a patient in a trial in NaPi2b-expressing cancers last year.

In September, the US Food and Drug Administration lifted the partial clinical hold on the Phase I study of XMT-1522, which is out-licensed to Takeda’s Millennium Pharmaceuticals subsidiary outside the USA and Canada.

But the companies have now decided to discontinue development for the fleximer-based antibody drug conjugate (ADC).