ViroPharma halts drug trial due to Halozyme delivery tech

Halozyme's ($HALO) drug delivery technology suffered a major setback when drugmaker ViroPharma ($VPHM) ended a Phase II trial that combines Halozyme's rHuPH20 with ViroPharma's drug Cinryze. The subcutaneous immunodeficiency treatment is designed to prevent swelling and painful attacks for patients with hereditary angioedema, a blood protein deficiency, but trials showed that the delivery tech caused unwanted production of antibodies. ViroPharma halted the trial as a precaution, as there were no adverse clinical effects, but Halozyme shares plummeted in response to the news. FierceBiotech's take