Cancer cases cloud efficacy in Abivax colitis study: Clinical Report

Abivax lost $4.5 billion in market cap on Tuesday on safety concerns for a program intended to be a safer small molecule alternative to the JAK inhibitor class for ulcerative colitis. Obefazimode, an oral miR-124 enhancer, produced promising efficacy results, but several cancer diagnoses in the higher dose cohort sparked investor concerns about approvability, acquisition prospects, and market potential.

Reduced risk of cancer and infection was supposed to be the new mechanism’s differentiation. If that’s no longer playing out, the therapy could still have an edge on efficacy...