Juno Therapeutics tumbles as leukemia drug trial is halted

Shares in Juno Therapeutics tumbled in early trade as the biopharmaceutical company said it has halted its Phase II clinical trial of the JCAR015 drug after two patients suffered cerebral edema earlier this week.

One patient died, while the other is not expected to recover as a result of the trial, which was for adult patients with relapsed or refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Juno said it has notified the US Food & Drug Administration of the voluntary hold and is working with the agency to determine its next steps.

“The company is assessing data from the cases and the trial and is evaluating its options regarding the JCAR015 program,” it said.

Juno put the same trial on hold back in July after it received notice from the FDA following the deaths of two patients. However, it was later allowed to resume the trial without using chemotherapy drug fludarabine as it believed it was the combination that caused the deaths.

At 1513 GMT, June shares were down 30.5% to $20.71.