Astex Pharma Announces It Will Halt Development of Lung Cancer Drug

Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc has confirmed that it will be halting the development of experimental small-cell lung cancer drug, Amuvatinib. The reason is that the drug failed to achieve a high response rate on an ongoing study.

The main goal of the trial, known as ESCAPE, was to evaluate if the drug achieved a response rate of 10 percent. However Amuvatinib was able to achieve a rate of only 9.5 percent.

The company said in a statement that no new safety issues were identified during the trial and that it would license the drug to any other companies interested in developing it further.



Source: Medindia