Vectura Group PLC (LON:VEC) shares spluttered on Monday morning after the inhaler maker’s VR475 severe uncontrolled asthma treatments failed in a late-stage study.
VR475 is a drug-device combination which allows budesonide – one of the most common asthma treatments – to be delivered through Vectura’s nebuliser inhalation system.
Top-line results from the phase III trial showed that although the inhaler helped bring about some improvement in sufferers, it wasn’t deemed ‘statistically significant’ when compared to those taking the placebo.
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The open-label arm of the study with conventional nebuliser also failed to reach statistical significance versus placebo, Vectura said.
Based on the data, the company will not further look to further develop or partner VR475 and will write down the value of the asset to zero, which will hit full-year pre-tax profits by around £40mln.
“The study outcome is disappointing, however, the primary endpoint in this difficult-to-treat patient population presented a high hurdle from the outset,” said Tim Harrison, a professor at the University of Nottingham and the principal investigator of the trial.
Vectura’s chief medical officer Gonzalo de Miquel, was also disappointed but said he remained confident in the company’s other pipeline candidates, including its VR647 programme.
Vectura shares were down 6.7% to 72.4p early on Monday morning.