SiliconBeat

Shares of Aryx Therapeutics, the Fremont biopharmaceutical, got bombed Wednesday following news released late the day before that its latest clinical trial of tecafarin, its novel blood-clot treatment, failed to achieve better results than wafarin, a blood-thinner sold by Bristol- Myers Squibb that was developed six decades ago.

Ayrx’s stock ended the trading day falling $1.86, or 44.2 percent, to
$2.35.

Aryx shares were slammed last July when Procter & Gamble pulled out of a partnership in developing Aryx’s drug to treat chronic constipation and abdominal pain.

After falling below $2 a share in November, a couple of Aryx’s biggest investors piled in a bought more shares in a private
placement that generated $21.6 million in exchange for 9.6 million
shares, along with warrants good on a potential 2.9 million
additional shares.

“There are still a lot of data to be analyzed from this trial,” said Chief Executive Paul Goddard in a statement.  “Once we have fully analyzed both the efficacy and safety results, we will continue our on-going partnership discussions with several large pharmaceutical companies to determine the best path forward in the future development of tecarfarin.