BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Bad beat

Investors' CHF61 million gamble on Cytos' asthma program falls flat

April 21, 2014 7:00 AM UTC

Investors rolled the dice on an allergic asthma program from Cytos Pharmaceuticals AG (SIX:CYTN) but the CHF61.3 million ($69.6 million) bet came up snake eyes last week when CYT003 failed in a Phase IIb trial.

Cytos was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2012 when a group of investors led by venBio and joined by Abingworth, Aisling Capital and Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) stepped in to save the company...