BOTHELL — Another pharmaceutical firm has jilted Nastech Pharmaceutical Co., marking the third time in less than two years that the local biotechnology firm has seen a drug development partnership dissolve.
In a short statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bothell-based company acknowledged this week that Denmark-based Novo Nordisk A/S “intends to cease development” with Nastech.
Company officials could not be reached for further comment. The company also announced it plans to sell up to $50 million in debt securities and new stock shares to raise money.
Nastech and Novo Nordisk had agreed in March 2006 to study the possibility of jointly developing unspecified compounds. No details of what the companies were studying together ever were released.
But investors, already down on Nastech since last fall, further punished the biotech’s stock.
Nastech shares fell 18 cents, or 6 percent, Wednesday to close at $2.62.
That followed an 8 percent decline on Tuesday. Since early August, when the share price peaked above $16, Nastech’s stock has shed 84 percent of its value.
The biggest drop came in November, when Nastech announced that Procter &Gamble Pharmaceuticals had terminated its agreement to help the company develop and eventually market a nasal spray designed to treat osteoporosis.
After that development, Nastech Nastech Chief Executive Steven Quay announced the company was cutting 72 jobs and concentrating research and development work on its most advanced drug development programs.
It also established an independent, separately financed company called MDRNA Inc. That new company will try to advance Nastech’s research into RNA interference, a cellular mechanism that can control proteins that are critical to the expansion of viruses.
In March 2006, Merck &Co. ended its partnership with Nastech to develop an anti-obesity nasal spray when an early study suggested the drug didn’t work. Nastech is still pursuing that potential treatment.
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