Gossamer Calls It Quits On BTK Inhibitor Following Patient Deaths

Gossamer Bio, Inc.’s decision to discontinue the development of the central nervous system-penetrant BTK inhibitor candidate GB5121 for primary CNS lymphoma follows the decision announced in its fourth quarter earnings to deprioritize the program after multiple serious adverse events, including two patient deaths in a study. But not only is the company knocked back in the BTK class, its prioritization of a pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) program for a different kind of drug, seralutinib, has attracted some controversy due to lackluster performance in a prior trial.

Gossamer said in a 3 April Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had decided to terminate ongoing studies of...