Skye Bioscience is abandoning its entire eye disease pipeline following a Phase 2a trial failure, and it’s pivoting to one of the hottest categories in the industry — obesity.
The San Diego-based biotech announced Monday that SBI-100 didn’t hit the primary endpoint evaluating diurnal intraocular pressure in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. The failure sent its stock {$SKYE) down about 15% by mid-morning.
In April, Skye uplisted from an over-the-counter stock exchange to the Nasdaq. It has raised about $100 million since August.
Now, Skye will pivot all of its resources to its metabolic program, which includes a Phase 2 obesity study for its CB1 inhibitor, called nimacimab. The trial is expected to begin dosing in the third quarter and produce data in 2025. Skye CEO Punit Dhillon previously told Endpoints News that the drug will be combined with an unnamed GLP-1 in an approximately 200-person study that is set to run for 26 weeks plus 12 weeks of follow-up.
The company said the discontinuation will allow it to focus on its metabolic pipeline and extend its operating runway into 2027.
“In the last year, we laid the groundwork for our metabolic program with the goals of diversifying our product portfolio’s disease targets and therapeutic mechanisms, while significantly expanding our clinical and business opportunities,” Dhillon said in a statement.
He also said Monday that the company believes that nimacimab could provide “higher-quality, sustainable weight loss” than the industry-dominating GLP-1s, which have their own set of issues like gastrointestinal side effects and shortages.