Anyone think INCR is worth gamble at .10? Finances sure look bad.
Sep 20, 2002 (The News & Observer - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Incara Pharmaceuticals has concluded that its most advanced experimental drug isn't worth pursuing further -- a blow that could hurt the company's efforts to raise the cash it needs to survive.
Incara announced this week that the test results of 138 patients who participated in a clinical trial of its experimental treatment for ulcerative colitis, deligoparin, showed that the drug wasn't as effective as anticipated. Two weeks earlier, Incara stopped enrolling patients in clinical trials for the drug due to financial problems -- both its own and those of its corporate partner.
The negative test results come at a crucial time for Incara. The Research Triangle Park-based company's most recent quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed that the 25-employee business would run out of cash by the end of September unless it raised additional financing. The company also has been exploring selling the business.
Incara shares rose 1 cent Thursday to close at 12 cents. The stock has lost 90 percent of its value this year.
How will deligoparin's problems affect Incara's fund-raising efforts? "We'll just have to see," said W. Bennett Love, Incara's vice president of corporate planning and communications. "Clearly it would be better if E it had had more positive results."
He added: "We're looking at all the possibilities and working as hard as we can."
Bennett also noted that potential investors who have looked at the business are more interested in the company's other development projects. Incara, which doesn't yet have any products on the market, also is developing treatments for liver failure and for damage caused by cancer radiation therapy and stroke.
Unlike deligoparin, neither of those treatments have yet been tested in humans, although the treatment for liver failure has received the go-ahead to conduct clinical trials from the Food and Drug Administration.
Bennett stressed, however, that the other treatments are attractive because they're aimed at potentially larger markets and are wholly owned by Incara.
Deligoparin, meanwhile, was being developed by a joint venture formed by Incara and Elan, the Irish drug company that is having financial problems of its own. Elan recently announced plans to sell assets and eliminate 1,000 jobs this year.
For the quarter that ended in June, Incara reported a net loss of $3.2 million on $3,000 in revenue. Incara doesn't yet have any products on the market. The company had $1.3 million in cash and securities at the end of June, less than half of what it spent in the latest quarter.
Deligoparin's failure isn't a first for Incara. The company halted tests of a heart drug in 1999 because of disappointing results.
By David Ranii To see more of The News & Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to newsobserver.com.
(c) 2002, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. |
