Astra Zeneca will not move forward with the development of arthritis pill fostamatinib.
While a release from AstraZeneca indicated that test patients showed improvements with the drug and side effects were moderate, a decision was made not to move forward.
Briggs Morrison, MD, executive vice president of Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer, said: “The results of the late stage trials did not measure up to the promising results we saw earlier in development. We remain committed to the search for new treatments for patients with rheumatic and inflammatory diseases with Phase II compounds in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and Phase III compounds in gout and psoriasis.”
AstraZeneca will incur a pre-tax charge of approximately $140 million to R&D expense in the second quarter of this year.
AstraZeneca announced an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Rigel Pharmaceuticals in February 2010 for the global development and commercializaiton of fostamatinib. AstraZeneca intends to publish a more detailed analysis of the OSKIRA clinical program, the company indicated.
As a Reuters story noted, AstraZeneca has seen disappointing results with its drug development pipeline that has not replaced revenue from drugs that have lost patent protection.
AstraZeneca is realigning its research and development activities and plans to move its headquarters from London to the university town of Cambridge, U.K. The moves will result in the loss of 1,200 jobs at its north Wilmington site.
It earlier replaced David Brennan with pharmaceutical industry veteran Pascal Soriot as the company worked to jump start its R&D efforts.
