Incyte's Horrible News Derails a Promising Class of Cancer Drugs

It turns out Incyte (NASDAQ: INCY)didn't have any special sauce after all. Following lackluster results that led Roche Holding (NASDAQOTH: RHHBY)to abandon the IDO inhibitorGDC-0919 last year, industry watchers had remained confident that Incyte's IDO inhibitor, epacadostat, would avoid a similar fate.

That confidence appears to have been misplaced. On Friday, Incyte revealed that epacadostat's most advanced clinical cancer trial has failed. The bad news casts doubt on epacadostat's future and the future of IDO inhibition altogether.