BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Interneuron: Rehabilitation

January 4, 2000 8:00 AM UTC

Through a flurry of deals at year end, Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is working to rehabilitate its original business model of in-licensing products, adding value through clinical trials and regulatory milestones and then out-licensing the products to new partners.

However, the company has yet to demonstrate that the model works. Partner Wyeth-Ayerst withdrew IPIC's first product, Redux dexfenfluramine to treat obesity, from the market in 1997 due to allegations about possible side effects. And IPIC withdrew an NDA for CerAxon citicoline in 1998 after a third Phase III trial in stroke failed to achieve statistical significance. As a result, IPIC's stock had been trading in the $1.125 to $8.75 range after reaching a high of $42 in May 1996, and the company has about a year of cash...