AstraZeneca has seen more than £20 billion wiped off its stock market value after a trial for its new heart drug, Wainua, failed to meet its primary goal. The FTSE 100 company's shares fell by as much as 11% on Thursday morning, dragging the broader index into negative territory.
Drug failure details
The drug, developed jointly with US firm Ionis, is a gene silencer that suppresses the production of abnormal proteins in the liver. The trial aimed to treat transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy, a condition affecting an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people worldwide, according to AstraZeneca. However, Wainua did not reduce deaths related to heart disease when added to standard care.
Impact on AstraZeneca
This is a rare drug disappointment for the Anglo-Swedish firm and a blow to investors. Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca's executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals research and development, said: "Although the trial did not meet its primary objective, we believe the results support greater scientific understanding of treatment approaches for the hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide suffering from this progressive and often fatal condition."
Market analyst reactions
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, commented: "Heart disease is big business for pharmaceuticals, and today's news is a major blow for AstraZeneca. Given the expected revenue benefits from this drug will not materialise for the foreseeable future, AstraZeneca's ambitious targets for 2030 now look under serious threat." Neil Wilson, Saxo UK investor strategist, added: "This is undeniably a very big setback for AstraZeneca, which was counting on something like six billion US dollars in peak annual sales from the drug, called Wainua. Astra has many more irons in the fire but this is a disappointment and comes after US regulators delayed approval for a cancer drug."
