Novartis Drops Asthma Drug After Disappointing Trial Results -- Update
16 December 2019 - 11:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Denise Roland
Novartis AG said it was abandoning a potential blockbuster drug
in asthma after it failed two late stage-trials, dealing a blow to
the company's hopes of pioneering a novel way to treat the
respiratory disease.
The Swiss health-care giant said the experimental treatment,
called fevipiprant, performed no better than a placebo in reducing
exacerbations -- episodes where symptoms suddenly worsen -- in two
large trials on patients with moderate to severe asthma.
Novartis is pivoting toward high-value branded drugs and away
from over-the-counter treatments and generic drugs under Chief
Executive Vasant Narasimhan. However, while these products yield
higher profits, risk of failure is also greater.
The company had recently highlighted fevipiprant as one of its
promising new drugs, with plans to submit it to regulators next
year if the trials were successful.
Novartis hoped fevipiprant would address a gap in treatment
options for patients with severe asthma. Most can keep their
symptoms under control using inhaled drugs alone but it is more
difficult for those with severe asthma. A new wave of injectable
treatments, including Novartis's own Xolair, have proved effective
but 10%-20% of people with severe forms of the disease don't
respond to the injections and need fresh alternatives.
Filling that gap could have generated around $1.5 billion a year
in sales for Novartis, according to analysts at Jefferies.
"While the results of the...studies with fevipiprant are
disappointing, they meaningfully contribute to our understanding"
of the underlying biology, said John Tsai, head of drug development
at Novartis.
The disappointing results come a few weeks after Novartis
announced fevipiprant was unsuccessful in patients with
mild-to-moderate asthma. Analysts had hoped the drug would
nonetheless work in patients with more severe forms of the disease.
Andrew Baum, an analyst at Citigroup, called the news an "unwelcome
surprise" in a note to clients.
Novartis isn't heavily dependent on fevipiprant for revenue,
however. It told analysts at a recent event that it believes it has
around two dozen potential blockbusters -- drugs that could make
more than $1 billion revenue a year -- in its pipeline.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 16, 2019 06:55 ET (11:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Novartis (NYSE:NVS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Novartis (NYSE:NVS)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024