Doomsday for Allakos

Yesterday Allakos was worth $4.4bn. Today its valuation is a minute fraction of that after the catastrophic failure of lirentelimab, the group's sole clinical asset, in rare inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders slashed its share price by 92%.

The results from two late-stage studies make, frankly, little sense, and the group’s failure to offer any explanation for the findings has left Allakos in extremis. And since the anti-siglec 8 MAb was considered one of the most valuable pipeline projects in biopharma, its loss can only exacerbate the sector’s dismal climate.