Skye stock plunged to its lowest-ever point Monday after the biotech company scrapped its failed eye-disease drug in favor of pivoting to obesity treatment.
Skye Bioscience had been testing a treatment for a form of glaucoma. But in a study of 56 patients, the drug failed to meet its primary goal. Now, Skye says it's terminating testing for that drug and its entire ophthalmology pipeline.
Instead, Skye is now focusing on its drug, nimacimab, as a potential obesity treatment. Skye Bio is planning to begin dosing patients in a Phase 2 study in the third quarter. In the last year, Skye focused on diversifying its pipeline, Chief Executive Punit Dhillon said in a written statement.
"With this data outcome from our glaucoma program, we will now focus 100% of our efforts on broadening our metabolic clinical pipeline," he said.
On the stock market today, Skye stock plummeted 8.8% to 9.98.
Skye Stock: Focusing On Cannabinoids
Nimacimab works by blocking the cannabinoid 1 receptor, or CB1. CB1 plays a role in regulating energy balance and metabolism. Skye expects the mechanism to have an impact on obesity, chronic kidney disease and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.
But Skye will be going up against giants in obesity treatment, including Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which have approved drugs called Wegovy and Zepbound respectively. Others are working on weight-loss drugs using different mechanisms, including Amgen, Viking Therapeutics and Structure Therapeutics.
Skye stock wrapped its initial public offering and went public in April, MarketSurge shows. But, after peaking at 17.65 on April 18, shares have slumped. Skye stock has a low IBD Digital Relative Strength Rating of 18 out of 99, putting its 12-month performance in the bottom one-fifth of all stocks.
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