Shares of Bayer were buoyed after researchers announced that an experimental anti-clotting therapy was just as safe but considerably more effective than Sanofi-Aventis' Lovenox in a Phase III trial involving knee-surgery patients. That was crucial news for Bayer, which has tapped rivaroxaban as a blockbuster badly needed to pump new revenue into Germany's biggest drug maker. Volunteers taking the drug saw their risk of developing deep-vein thrombosis cut in half when compared to the Lovenox arm of the trial.
Bayer now expects to file for European approval later this year with an FDA application in 2008. That puts them ahead of BMS and Pfizer to develop a new clotting therapy.
- see this release for more
- read the AFX report on the trial results