Actelion falls lower as lung disease trials fail

Shares in drug firm Actelion fell after it announced on Monday that trials of its lung disease drug Tracleer failed to reach targets.

The company discovered through that the drug did not encourage significant exercise improvements in six minute walk tests amongst of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) or pulmonary fibrosis. Whilst positive trends were detected in the former group, the company said they were not statistically significant.

Shares in Actelion fell by 11 per cent to 129 Swiss francs on the news, and had fallen to 128.50 by 10:30 GMT Wednesday.

“I am encouraged that in this well-designed study in patients with IPF, a severe lung disease with no effective therapy, clinically relevant trends were observed in important parameters related to death or disease worsening,” said Talmadge King Jr, who conducted the study into IPF patients.

He said the observation should “be further investigated in IPF with a clinical program,” but added that “we might consider that the six-minute walk test is not an appropriate endpoint to evaluate the response of this patient population to treatment.”

Reuters reported that analysts believed positive data would double the revenue generated by the drug.

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