Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc IONS 39.42% shares are tanking nearly 40 percent on Thursday following the company’s disclosure that severe cases of thrombocytopenia have been associated with two of its major drug programs: TTR in FAP and APOC3 in FCS. Cowen & Co analyst Eric Schmidt has downgraded the stock on the uncertainty surrounding the incidents and their potential impact on the future of the company.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) GSK 0.07% has already terminated its planned Phase III outcome study on IONIS-TTR-Rx in patients with TTR amyloid cardiomyopathy, but Schmidt believes that Ionis’ Phase III trial of volanesorsen in familial chylomicronemia syndrome may also soon be placed on hold.

“Though the company refrained from confirming whether any death associated with thrombocytopenia has occurred in the [TTR] trial, we suspect the speculation that there has been a death is true,” Schmidt writes.

Schmidt says…

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