Transcend Phase III suspended; Alteon may need Plan C

Transcend Therapeutics Inc. on Friday suspended its Phase III trial of Procysteine i.v. to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) after an independent safety monitoring board found a statistically significant higher incidence of mortality in the Procysteine group.

TSND will await further analysis of the data by the monitoring board before deciding whether to discontinue the trial. That analysis is expected to take a few weeks, leaving the company's lead product with an uncertain future. The company still plans to continue development of the oral form of the compound to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and is pursuing inlicensing other compounds...