Gilead writes off $11M gamble after PAH drug flunks PhII

Gilead's $11 million gamble on a new cardiovascular drug has ended in failure. Five years after picking up cicletanine in a deal with Navitas Assets, the biotech ($GILD) says that it's pulling the plug on the program after it failed a mid-stage study for pulmonary arterial hypertension, according to a report by Dow Jones.

The news wire picked up on the clinical failure of the little-known drug after ClinicaTrials.gov listed the 160-patient study as "terminated." A spokesperson for Gilead confirmed that the trial was ended after investigators concluded that it had failed its primary endpoint: Improving the walking distance of patients after 12 weeks of therapy.

Cicletanine had been developed by France's Ipsen and won approval in some European markets as a treatment for hypertension. Gilead had paid $10.9 million for the licensing rights upfront, promising to add unspecified milestones if it worked as a treatment for PAH.

- here's the story from Dow Jones

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