AstraZeneca heart drug fails at trial
AstraZeneca has announced the failure of one of its few remaining drugs in late-stage development.
AstraZeneca has announced the failure of one of its few remaining drugs in late-stage development.
The UK-based firm said that a trial of AGI-1067, its experimental drug for heart disease, had failed to reduce deaths or complications when compared with a placebo. A phase III clinical trial involving 6,000 people indicated that the drug had failed to 'meet its primary endpoint of a statistically significant relative risk reduction'.
AstraZeneca said that development of the drug had not necessarily been abandoned because niche applications could be found. The trial did identify positive findings for a small number of patients, such as those with diabetes.
The company said that it would work with its collaboration partner AtheroGenics, the American biotechnology company, 'to fully analyse the data' and then take 45 days to plot a course of action.
In 2005 AstraZeneca paid US$50m to AtheroGenics for licensing rights to AGI-1067. The companies had hoped that, if successful, the drug could have generated billions of dollars in sales a year.
The disappointment of AGI-1067 represents the fourth failure of a late-stage drug for AstraZeneca since the start of last year. Exanta, a blood-clot medicine, Galida, a diabetes drug, and Cerovive, an antistroke drug, were abandoned last year. Patents on some of the company's key products, such as Nexium, a stomach-acid drug, and Crestor, an anticholesterol agent, will expire in the next few years.