After taking a shot at becoming a neuroscience biotech, buzzy Bay Area AI outfit Verge Genomics is dropping its only clinical asset and returning to its drug discovery roots.
The decision comes after VRG50635, the company’s lead asset for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), failed a pre-specified efficacy analysis in a phase 1 trial, Effie Bruzik, Verge’s vice president of operations, told Fierce Biotech.
“A no-go decision was made,” Bruzik said, so the trial was terminated and did not advance to an open-label extension stage. On clinicaltrials.gov, the reason given for the termination is “lack of risk-benefit data.”
The move away from VRG50635 leaves a preexisting deal with Ferrer in limbo. The Spanish pharma licensed the ex-U.S. rights to the ALS asset in March 2024 in a pact potentially worth more than 112.5 million euros (then worth roughly $121.7 million).
Bruzik did not respond to questions from Fierce Biotech about the status of Verge’s deal with Ferrer. At the time of publication, Ferrer had not responded to Fierce's request for comment.
With no more candidates in the clinic, Verge is pivoting to focus solely on its machine learning drug discovery platform Converge, Bruzik added.
“Recent breakthroughs in AI foundation models has meaningfully increased demand for Verge’s multi-modal human datasets in the last 18 months, and we see a clear opportunity to drive industry-wide impact by enabling partners to improve pipeline success rates,” Bruzik said.
Verge intends to use a “leaner cost structure” and continued investment in its technology to scale up Converge as a means to achieve “sustainable profitability,” Bruzik explained. The company plans to divulge more details on the “strategic re-focus,” including new hires, early next year, she said.
VRG50635 itself was originally discovered with Converge, and the tech company’s success at bringing an AI-discovered candidate into the clinic earned Verge a spot on the Fierce 15 list in 2022.
Founded in 2015, Verge raised a $32 million series A in 2018 and then tripled it to $98 million for a December 2021 series B that saw Eli Lilly and Merck pitch in.
Lilly was already a known friend of Verge, dropping $25 million upfront on the AI company in July 2021 to pursue new ALS candidates. AstraZeneca followed with $42 million for an R&D pact of its own in September 2023.