Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, a Hopkinton, Mass.-based drugmaker, said it will stop developing a hepatitis B drug after a patient died during a midstage clinical trial.
Spring Bank was testing an experimental drug called inarigivir soproxil and had signed deals with Gilead Sciences in 2015 and 2017 to collaborate on potential hepatitis B treatments, according to STAT.
Spring Bank said it will stop developing the drug as a result of "unexpected serious adverse events."
"We are deeply saddened by the death of a patient in our catalyst 2 trial," said Martin Driscoll, president and chief executive of Spring Bank.
The drugmaker will stop all research for hepatitis B and will instead focus on developing drugs for diseases with high unmet needs.
The decision to stop development of the drug wasn't a total surprise, as on Dec. 26 Spring Bank said it would stop dosing and enrolling patients in the trial after finding potential liver injury in three patients.
Read the full news release here.