My first lesson in technology asset management ends ten years after it began
Symbollon Pharmaceuticals Announces Results of IoGen Phase III Clinical Trial
Normally, I wouldn’t give a company so small in stature space in these pages, but this news release from tiny Symbollon (market cap pre-announcement circa $10M) stirred some memories for me. You see Iogen, an oral formulation of molecular iodine–Symbollon’s entire pipeline–was also the first drug I was asked to evaluate for possible in-licensing.
That was back in 1998, or maybe 1999. I remember feeling expertish.
At the time Symbollon was beginning its Phase 2 study of Iogen, but I believe they had some clinical data already in hand too.
I remember being relatively unimpressed with the efficacy potential but also thinking: “Why not license the thing? It’s probably safe, there’s a chance it works, and it certainly will be cheap.” Yeah…I was still pretty green then, not fully appreciating the substantial out-of-pocket and opportunity costs associated with any clinical-phase drug acquisition. Other people more wizened than me realized the true costs, and my employer, also unimpressed with the efficacy data gathered at the time, took a pass. As apprently did every other pharmaceutical company who saw the package.
From a glance at the Symbollon website, it looks like the company went it alone for a while and even initiated the pivotal study referenced above by themselves. Although it appears that they initiated the same study some six months later, after recruiting a license partner in Gardent Pharmaceuticals (nee Bioaccelerate Holdings). Start a study twice? Hey, why not? Give investors their money worth I say.
I have no idea what became of Gardent, but they bailed on Iogen in 2006, leaving Symbollon to go it alone to the bitter end. Symbollon had initially expected Phase 3 to wrap up in 12 months; it ended up taking nearly 40. A lack of timely funds and a skeletal management team will do that. Oh, and they blew through $20 million. Not much to big pharma, but the opportunity cost would have been several times more.
Pity poor Symbollon, with it’s tiny market cap barely registering a blip and it’s hopes all faded. My lesson finally complete.
