Novartis drops asthma drug after trial failures

Novartis announced it is abandoning what it had hoped would be a top-selling asthma drug, fevipiprant, from its development program after the medicine failed another set of key trials.

Fevipiprant is an investigational, novel, steroid-free once-daily pill.The pooled analyses of the LUSTER trials did not meet the clinically relevant threshold for reduction in rate of moderate -to-severe exacerbation compared to placebo over a 52-week treatment period for either of the doses (150mg/450 mg).

Novartis continues to invest into respiratory medicines with in-market products Xolair and Ultibro Breezhaler, as well as Phase III investigational products QVM1499 (moderate-to-severe asthma) and QMF14910 (moderate-to-severe asthma).

Read the press release