Roche Cancels Commercial Agreement With Chiasma

August 10, 2014 | Roche AG notified Israeli startup Chiasma that it has cancelled a commercial agreement to produce a drug for the treatment of acromegaly (gigantism). The agreement was signed between the companies in February 2013 and would have generated $600 million for Chiasma and its investors had it been implemented. Roche announced that it would cancel the deal for the drug that has undergone a Phase III clinical trial, “after receiving additional information about the trial, and after further consultation with the regulatory authorities.” Chiasma now plans to submit the Phase III results to the Food & Drug Administration in the United States, hoping to receive approval to launch its product by 2015. Chiasma is a biopharmaceutical company based in New York and Israel developing oral treatments for drugs that were previously injected.