Pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) has halted its study on a drug meant for Hepatitis C following emergence of safety related issues.
On Wednesday, the company announced that it will voluntarily shelve the phase two study, referred to as BMS-986094, and earlier called as INX-189.
The company has now decided to assess all patients in the study and subsequently prepare an evaluation data, before deciding its next course of action.
The decision is great setback for the company as some earlier trials showed lots of promise in this drug. The suspension of study also raises question mark on Bristol Myers decision to pay hefty price of $2.5bn to acquire a company that developed this drug.
Adding to the woes is flagging sales of its blockbuster drug, Plavix, an anti-clotting medicine. Plavis will now have to compete with generic versions as it lost the patent protection in May.
Many drug makers such as Abbot Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) are vying with each other to introduce an all oral hepatitis treatment in the market, which is valued at billions of dollars.
Should the new therapy finds its way then it would get rid of existing standard treatment- interferon, an injecting drug which is extremely intolerable for patients.
