STAT+: Acelyrin, a rare IPO success, stumbles in its first big test

The biotech company Acelyrin, which raised more than $500 million in an IPO this year, ran into its first major setback Monday as its investigational anti-inflammatory drug missed the primary goal in a pivotal clinical trial.

Acelyrin’s medicine, a subcutaneous treatment called izokibep, is meant to clear up lesions for patients with the common skin disease hidradenitis suppurativa, or HS, an inflammatory disorder that leads to abscesses and scars. But after 16 weeks of treatment, patients who received izokibep did not show significant improvements compared to those taking a placebo, failing the study’s primary endpoint.

The result is a blow to Acelyrin’s plans to turn izokibep into a pipeline in a product. The company went public in May at a valuation exceeding $2 billion on the promise that its lead drug could treat an array of autoimmune diseases including psoriatic arthritis, the spinal disorder axial spondyloarthritis, and the inflammatory ocular disease uveitis. Izokibep works similarly to blockbuster anti-inflammatories including Novartis’ Cosentyx and Eli Lilly’s Taltz, but it’s designed to be more potent and easier to administer.

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