Ventyx Biosciences is shelving a drug after a mid-stage miss and failure.
The company was investigating VTX958, an allosteric TYK2 inhibitor, in patients with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease, but the Phase 2 trial did not meet its primary endpoint of change in the mean Crohn’s disease activity index score “due to a higher than anticipated placebo response.”
In the study, 109 patients got either 225 mg and 300 mg of the drug twice daily or a placebo for 12 weeks. Ventyx said VTX958 showed an effect on the secondary endpoint, with the drug decreasing two key biomarkers of inflammation. It’s unclear whether the drug met the secondary endpoint.
The company said it plans to conduct more analyses of the data, though it has no plans to do more clinical trials with VTX958 using internal resources.
The company’s stock $VTYX tumbled about 25% on Monday morning. Ventyx has cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $279 million, which the company says gives it runway into at least the second half of 2026.
The readout took place less than a year after the company said VTX958 didn’t show enough efficacy in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in a Phase 2 study to continue development, though the drug hit the primary and secondary endpoints.
In November, Ventyx’s stock dropped about 73% after it shared the results. At that time, Ventyx also stopped investigating the drug in psoriatic arthritis.
Ventyx’s decision to end development of the drug wasn’t unexpected. “Ultimately, we don’t think there was much anticipation for this readout given the prior failure in [plaque psoriasis] and pivot towards their NLRP3 portfolio,” Stifel analysts wrote in a note on Monday morning.
They noted that investors are paying attention to the company’s obesity candidate, VTX3232, which is set to move into a Phase 2a study by the end of the year. Topline data are expected in the first half of next year.