The Other Shoe Drops at Ariad

Ever since Iclusig (ponatinib) (note: fixed that name as an update) ran into trouble with blood-cloting side effects, Ariad has had a huge uncertain cloud blocking out its sunlight. Now that the FDA has told them to take the drug off the market completely, it was clear what was going to happen. Happen it has: the company is laying off a large part of its workforce. It's very much in doubt whether Iclusig will ever come back. Update: in Europe, the EMA has now said that Iclusig can remain on the market "with increased caution").And if it doesn't, it's very much in doubt whether Ariad will, or how long that might take. There's a large, mostly-completed building around the corner from me covered in blue-green glass that was going to be the home of a larger, more solvent Ariad, and no one knows what's going to happen to that, either. It's a rough business. Update: turns out the blue-green glass one was going to be Aveo, which cratered earlier this year. Who's going to occupy that, one wonders? Ariad's is the less-complete large framework going up across from the (incongruous) Mormon church. That's a pretty large building, or will be, and you wonder who will end up in there. There are so many biopharma construction sites in this town that you need a guidebook.
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Cancer Source Type: blogs