Geneva-based Addex Therapeutics has lost its 20-year relationship with Johnson & Johnson a few months after their partnered epilepsy drug flunked a mid-stage test.
A J&J spokesperson told Endpoints News Thursday morning that the pharma giant notified Addex of its decision to discontinue development of ADX71149, also known as JNJ-1813, for the adjunctive treatment of epilepsy in adults. An Addex spokesperson told Endpoints that the company had “not received any such communication from J&J.”
The drug had been removed from J&J’s pipeline as part of a quarterly update on Wednesday, during which the company reaffirmed its long-term targets and gave an update on IRA negotiations.
At the time of the late April fail, Addex said it was still analyzing the data with J&J. The pharma giant ran the clinical development of the mGlu2-positive allosteric modulator known as ADX71149 and had previously tested the drug candidate for schizophrenia and anxious depression, but didn’t move forward in either of those indications.
“We have been working closely with trial sites to inform enrolled patients so they may seek alternative treatment options,” the J&J spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
While a relatively small deal in the grand scheme of pharma-biotech partnerships, the €109 million offered in milestones would have been a big boon to Addex, a struggling micro-cap biotech that recently spun out a portion of its pipeline into a private company in order to get the capital it needed for further R&D.
Addex also has a partnership with Indivior for substance use disorders, and a project in that tie-up is expected to enter IND-enabling studies later this year. It also has an mGlu5-negative allosteric modulator named dipraglurant, but a Parkinson’s trial was tossed out after Covid-related challenges in 2022. Work is also ongoing in chronic cough, an area that has attracted companies like GSK, Merck and Nocion, among others.