Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. will discontinue further development of its drug Sollpura after it failed to show that it worked as well as existing treatments available in the market.
The company's stock was down 81.15% following the news to 50 cents as of 11:49 a.m. ET on March 12, 2018.
The Hayward, Calif.-based drugmaker was studying the therapy in patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, or EPI, due to cystic fibrosis, a rare genetic disorder that causes an abnormal buildup of mucus in the pancreas and other organs.
Patients with EPI are unable to properly digest food due to a lack of an enzyme produced by the pancreas. These patients rely on pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy, which is derived from enzymes found in pig pancreas glands, also known as porcine-based PERT.
The therapy is sold by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. as Pancreaze.
Under a late-stage study dubbed Result, Sollpura was unable to show that it worked as well as PERT in terms of improving coefficient of fat absorption, or CFA, a metric used to measure a patient's body's ability to digest fat.
While some patients maintained or improved their CFA, a greater proportion of the patients taking Sollpura saw their CFA worsen.
As a result, Anthera decided to stop all further development of Sollpura and plans to examine strategic alternatives for the business.
According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation website, more than 30,000 people are living with the disease in the U.S., and about 1,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
Anthera's Sollpura also missed its main goal in a phase 3 study called Solution, but showed positive results in an extension of the trial.
