AstraZeneca cancer drug fails its trials
ASTRAZENECA has dropped its experimental prostate cancer drug zibotentan from the late stages of trials, it said yesterday.
The pill failed efficacy tests following a review by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC).
The withdrawal of the product is a blow to the UK’s second largest drugmaker, which has also seen trial failures for separate cancer drugs recentin and vandetanib.
The company is now pinning hopes on the drug passing an alternative trial, in which it is combined with chemotherapy.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men.
“While R&D is becoming more scientifically challenging, governments are adding ever greater layers of regulation to clinical trials, driving up costs and development times,” commented Philip Stevens of research consultancy the Covent Garden Writers Group.