The clinical trials of a drug candidate for hemophilia A and B, developed by the biotech american Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in partnership with the French group Sanofi, has been suspended in the United States after the death of a patient, announced Thursday the two companies.
A “thrombotic event, fatal occurred in a patient with hemophilia A, which is included in a phase II study of fiturisan, experimental treatment of Alnylam co-developed with Sanofi, which also has rights of co-marketing, according to a press release from the French group.
Therefore, Alnylam “has suspended the administration of the fiturisan in all of the studies that are currently being spent waiting for the in-depth review of the pharmacovigilance and the development of a risk mitigation strategy with this product, it was specified.
Alnylam, however, has the intention of taking over the administration of the medication as soon as possible, subject to the agreement of the regulatory authorities concerned.
“This is not positive […] but the product is relatively small”
On the Paris Stock market, that announcement led to Sanofi in the red Thursday: the title gave up 0.80 per cent, at 81,72 € 16.20 (14: 20 GMT), while the CAC 40 index was up 0.30% at the same time. Alnylam, as the first question, declined approximately 14% on the Nasdaq.
“This is not a positive for Sanofi, but the product is not dead and it is relatively small at the group level,” commented one analyst in paris interviewed by the AFP.
In 2014, Sanofi is mounted to a 12% stake in Alnylam for $ 700 million, gaining by the same token, the commercial rights on several of its drugs in development for rare diseases, including the fiturisan.
(With AFP)
