Boston, MA 10/30/2013 (wallstreetpr) – Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA), in the first week of October reported a collapse of 59% at the stock market, following poor results of trails for its drug Iclusig.
The company had been conducting trails for the drug that held great promise for long term myeloid leukemia patients. The ongoing trails for the drug were paused, as patients who received Iclusig were found to have developed cardiac problems.
On October 11, 2013, FDA reiterated that Iclusig, which involved the use of the drug ponatinib had in the recent trails cause severe instances of coronary threats- “blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels of patients taking ponatinib … including heart attacks resulting in death, worsening coronary artery disease, stroke, narrowing of large arteries of the brain, severe narrowing of blood vessels in the extremities, and the need for urgent surgical procedures to restore blood flow.”
Following the release of this statement Ariad had stopped the trials of drug Iclusig, triggering massive fall in share prices. However, the following week, support by JPMorgan allowed Ariad to post some rally, allowing shares to rise by 10.4%. JPMorgan had defended that, according to their survey, doctors whom the analyst company spoke to, did into see any changes to their prescribing Iclusig for the next six to one year at the least. Besides, most doctors saw a preference to increasing the use of these drugs over the numbers who would stop prescribing the drug.
Considering the fact that a drug – Tasigna- made by Novartis was very similar to Iclusig also displayed same ‘safety profile,’ the reasons for not prescribing Iclusig did not arise for doctors familiar with both the drugs.
Currently, Iclusig is an approved drug for use in both US and the European Union to treat certain types of leukemia. Henceforth, Ariad will change the labelling of their drug to reflect the safety warning against cardiac implications.
