Synairgen Shares Plunge as Covid-19 Treatment Misses Trial Targets
By Joe Hoppe
Shares in Synairgen PLC plummeted 85% on Monday after the company said that a Phase 3 trial of its inhaled treatment for Covid-19 failed to meet its primary or key secondary efficacy endpoints.
Shares at 0834 GMT were down 145.0 pence at 26.0 pence.
The U.K. drug-discovery company said the treatment, SNG001, a formulation containing the anti-viral protein interferon beta, was administered to 309 patients, with a further 314 receiving a placebo, along with both groups receiving standard care.
Patients who received the treatment were no more likely to leave the hospital or make a full recovery than those who received the placebo. The company said that improvement of the standard of care across the coronavirus pandemic may have compromised the potential of SNG001 to show a clinical benefit.
The trial showed the product was safe and well-tolerated, and there was a secondary endpoint trend in favor of SNG001 reducing progression to severe disease or death within 35 days of treatment compared to a placebo.
The company said it will review the full dataset of the trial to understand the results and implications for development.
Write to Joe Hoppe at [email protected]
