Surrozen is discontinuing its sole clinical-stage candidate and pivoting to its preclinical ophthalmology pipeline after the hepatitis drug failed to prove its worth in an early-stage trial.
The biotech had been evaluating the drug, dubbed SZN-043, in a phase 1b trial of patients with severe alcohol-associated hepatitis. As recently as November 2024, Surrozen was pointing to “a potential clinical benefit based on reductions in bilirubin and MELD score,” while noting that a “majority of patients experienced improvements” in AST and ALT levels, two biomarkers of liver damage.
But Surrozen announced Monday that it has now decided to call time on the program.
“While treatment with SZN-043 was safe and well-tolerated and demonstrated positive changes in liver function assays, there was not a sufficient early signal of clinical benefit to warrant further investment given the challenges associated with an acutely sick target population and a lengthy clinical development path,” the company said in the release.
“Given the significant progress and potential of our ophthalmology programs, we have decided to focus on our robust ophthalmology pipeline,” CEO Craig Parker said in a statement. “Importantly, our retinal ophthalmology programs represent novel combinations of clinically validated targets for treating a broad spectrum of serious eye diseases.”
Parker name-checked SZN-413, a bispecific antibody targeting Fzd4-mediated Wnt signaling that Surrozen is developing in collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim. The candidate is currently in preclinical development for retinal vascular-associated diseases.
Behind SZN-413 are four other preclinical eye drugs targeting Fzd4, Fzd127 or VEGF.
Today’s decision is Surrozen’s latest move to streamline its pipeline, having jettisoned a clinical-stage inflammatory bowel disease treatment last year and a pair of preclinical assets targeting severe dry eye and Fuchs’ dystrophy back in 2023.