On Monday shares of Chimerix, Inc. (CMRX) tumbled 80% after the company announced that their drug, in the phase 3 clinical trial, failed to meet on the primary endpoint. It failed to meet statistical significance to move on with an NDA filing to the FDA. The phase 3 trial that failed was known as the SUPPRESS trial and it recruited up to 452 patients. 

These are patients that undergo hematopoietic cell transplants -- HSC either due to blood cancer or a genetic defect in their body. These patients have Cytomegalovirus and other forms of infection. Chimerix showed in phase 2 that their drug Brincidofovir was able to achieve statistically significant results. Unfortunately these results didn't translate over to a larger phase 3 clinical trial, and thus the drug failed.

The phase 3 trial was tracking how well Brincidofovir was able to reduce the amount of Cytomegalovirus -- CMV -- compared to the placebo compound within a 24-week period after a transplant had been performed on the patients. The company reported that from week 1 to week 10, Brincidofovir was able to lower the amount of infections compared to placebo. There was a problem from week 10 to week 24 when there were increased infections in the drug treated group compared to the placebo group. There was also an increase in the mortality rate in the drug group as well, which was also disappointing.

The company expects to reveal a full analysis of the results at an upcoming healthcare conference at the BMT Tandem meeting, which will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii in February. Chimerix will move on developing its compound in other adenovirus infections and against smallpox. Considering that the company failed to produce statistically significant results in HCT patients, the chances of being successful in other clinical trials with the same drug are much smaller, which is why I am stating it is best to avoid this name for the time being as it has further room to fall.