When you have arthritis, and hear that a new, experimental drug hasn’t done so well in clinical trials, your mental wellness may take a hit. Now you have longer to wait for something that could cure your disease forever, and this can leave you feeling down, and even depressed. But what about the wellbeing of the company whose drug has just failed? How do they suffer?
AstraZeneca Plc has been working on an experimental drug known as fostamatinib which, in a late-stage clinical trial, showed mixed results in treating rheumatoid arthritis. You might not think this is the end of the world, but, as a result the shares of partnering Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. has plunged. The London-based company said in a statement that the treatment showed a statistically significant improvement in a measure of arthritis symptoms in the study known as Oskira-1. However, fostamatinib failed to show improvement in an x-ray that tracks the progression of joint damage.
According to Briggs Morrison, executive vice president of global medicines development, the trial shows the drug ‘has an effect on the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. We will await the results of the remaining Phase III studies, Oskira-2 and Oskira-3, to further evaluate and characterize the profile of fostamatinib as a potential treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.’ In a mid-stage trial last year, fostamatinib didn’t show a benefit compared to Abbott Laboratories’ Humira.
Results from Oskira-2 and Oskira-3 are due later in the second quarter, and AstraZeneca – the UK’s second-biggest drug manufacturer – needs successful results. According to an analyst at Nordea, Fostamatinib is AstraZeneca’s only experimental product that could make a meaningful difference to earnings this decade and yet these clinical trial findings have added to worries that the drug may lack commercial potential.
At the moment, new products are vital to the company as it needs to ease a sales slump caused by competition from generic medicines. AstraZeneca fell as much as 0.4% to 3,290.5 pence and was trading up 0.1% at 12:52 pm. In the past year, the stock has returned 25%, which includes reinvested dividends. By way of comparison, Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceutical Index returned 30%..
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