Genmab cancels development of cancer drug due to industry competition

WASHINGTON Danish drug maker Genmab is stopping development of a cancer drug, citing slow patient recruitment for a phase 3 study.

Genmab said the introduction of a rival to its cutaneous T-cell lymphoma drug, zanolimumab, had made it difficult to recruit patients for the study. It also cited competing clinical trials of drugs for the same condition and a relatively small market potential for zanolimumab.

The company is also licensing three of its early-stage development programs that fall outside the therapeutic areas on which it will focus and winding down early-stage studies of the colorectal and lung cancer drug HuMax-EGFr.