Kindred Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical company focused on saving and improving the lives of pets, has re-assessed its atopic dermatitis program and the atopic dermatitis market and has decided to discontinue its AtoKin study in favor of directing resources toward other programs in its portfolio.

“While the market for atopic dermatitis is large, the space has recently undergone a major transition. The rapid uptake and success of a recently-launched atopic dermatitis product, while confirming the large size of the market, has substantially raised the bar for future atopic dermatitis products,” stated Richard Chin, Chief Executive Officer of KindredBio. “Our goal is to develop products that are superior or clearly differentiated from other products and that have profiles that will lead to leadership positions in the markets. Given that, and given that we are in the position of having a number of other very promising product candidates we would like to pursue, we have made a business decision to discontinue our AtoKin program. This will allow us to redirect resources to other programs, including advancing additional novel drugs and biologics into development. While discontinuing a program is always difficult, we believe that an important part of good drug development is discipline in managing the product portfolio and prioritization of drugs that will lead to maximal return on investment and deliver maximal benefit to our patients.”