Altus Shares Nosedive as Agreement With Genentech Ends

Shares in Altus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ALTU]]) plunged nearly 50 percent today after the Cambridge company announced that an exclusive option agreement with Genentech on a drug candidate for human growth hormone had expired. Altus said it had reacquired development and commercialization rights to the drug candidate, ALTU-238, which had been granted to the California company under the deal.

“We continue to believe ALTU-238 can provide significant patient benefit with better dosing as a potential once-per-week treatment for growth hormone disorders,” said Altus CEO Sheldon Berkle in a statement. “Our goal is to resume clinical trials by mid-2008 and we expect to provide additional details regarding the clinical development plan to investors during the first quarter.”

Under the deal, which was announced a year ago, Genentech was to pay Altus $30 million up front, half of it in the form of an equity investment. In late afternoon trading, Altus shares were down $4.74 (48 percent), to $5.12.

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.