Seeking Alpha: Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Fights On

Nothing has ever been easy for Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LXRX). When the original plan to operate as a generator of knockout-based drug targets for other companies fell through, the company retrenched around the idea of developing its own drugs. After drugs targeted at rheumatoid arthritis and IBD fell through, the company found two much more promising candidates - telotristat etiprate for carcinoid syndrome and sotagliflozin (formerly LX 4211) for diabetes.

Here again, though, the company has encountered unexpected difficulties. Despite a strong profile in Type 2 diabetics with impaired renal function (a large piece of the market) and the possibility of strong efficacy in Type 1 diabetes, Lexicon has not been able to attract a partner to develop the Type 2 indication. This has left the company in a tough spot, forcing it to conserve resources and scramble for the cash it will need to develop the Type 1 diabetes indication on its own.

With the company's recent efforts to raise cash, it does look as though the company can make it through to pivotal data for both of its lead drugs. Whether the company can in fact market them on their own remains to be seen, but for now Lexicon remains what it has long been - a scrappy biotech with ugly financing and seemingly undervalued clinical assets.

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Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Fights On