Boston, MA 10/18/2013 (wallstreetpr) – Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) announced that it would stop a study it had undertaken as a first option for leukemia. The study involves the approved drug lclusig which it was treating as the first option for people suffering from leukemia. The company now fears a risk of clotting among patients on the use of the drug.
The study is named Epic and was testing the company’s only marketed product against Novartis AG’s drug called Gleevec in the newly diagnosed chronic disease myeloid leukemia. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have come to an agreement with the company according to which they have decided to stop the ongoing trial. It was, as they reported, to ensure the safety of the patients.
The Massachusetts based company said that they had to put a hold on the trials because of the elevated blood clot risk. The initial approval on the drug was based on hurried advancements which relied on only one trial exhibiting drug helped persons. In such cases where the initial approvals are made on a hurried basis, the companies must support their study further by further trials to ensure the effectively of the drug. In this case, an increased risk of blood clotting came to the forefront which caused immediate discontinuance of any further actions on the study.
After the drug maker announced this news, its shares declined in the market. Ever since the Epic study was first put on hold, the company had seen a drop in the share prices. This drop, after the study was completely scrapped off, the drop was enormous and sudden. Ariad’s shares plunged 35% and through yesterday, they lost 77% this year. Further reports on the drug lclusig say that it is still in U.S. markets and the company, together with EU is working with authorities to modify the drug’s labels to show safety findings.
