Sanofi, Vical Drug Fails to Prevent Limb Amputations in Late-Stage Trial
By Marthe Fourcade - Sep 22, 2010 1:34 AM PT
Sanofi-Aventis SA said a drug that had showed promise in restoring blood vessel growth in damaged limbs was no better than a placebo in an advanced test.
The medicine, known as NV1FGF, failed to meet the study’s goal of preventing limb amputation or patient deaths over 12 months, Sanofi said today in a statement. The 525-patient study’s full results will be presented at the American Heart Association Congress in November, the company said.
“We are disappointed,” Marc Cluzel, Sanofi’s executive vice president of research and development, said in the statement. “We are evaluating all options regarding the development of NV1FGF.”
The medicine in earlier research had showed an ability to promote the growth of new blood vessels and improve survival in patients whose limbs were damaged by thrombosis or embolism, a condition known as critical limb ischemia. The condition leads to more than 150,000 amputations a year in the U.S. and Europe, at a cost of more than $8 billion, the drug’s developer Vical Inc. estimated in 2007 when the study began.
Sanofi fell 77 cents, or 1.5 percent, to 49.88 euros at 10:19 a.m. in Paris trading. |
