AstraZeneca plc (LON: AZN) have posted positive results in a developing a new Anaemia drug which the firm has been working on over the last few months.
The trading update gave further insight into analyses of a Roxadustat drug trial for the treatment of patients with anaemia from chronic kidney disease showed positive efficacy and no increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events.
The development of the new medication comes at an important time for AstraZeneca, as competitors such as Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) smashed analyst expectations, and GlaxoSmithKline (LON: GSK) posted a bullish third quarter update.
The Cambridge based firm also mentioned a collaboration deal with US based FibroGen (NASDAQ: FGEN) for Roxadustat, saying that “pooled efficacy analyses from Phase III programme showed that roxadustat did not increase the risk of cardiovascular events”
Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president for BioPharmaceuticals research, said: “These highly anticipated results reinforce our confidence in the potential of roxadustat to address significant unmet medical needs among patients with anaemia from chronic kidney disease, particularly for those who have recently started dialysis.”
“The pooled analyses showed incident dialysis patients receiving roxadustat had a lower risk of cardiovascular events which is important as these patients may experience higher rates of morbidity and mortality than those on stable dialysis,” Pangalos added.
The FTSE100 (INDEXFTSE: UKX) listed firm won the approval for Roxadustat in China recently, and also has access to the Japanese market for the treatment of dialysis patients with anaemia from chronic kidney disease.
The data from the pooled efficacy and cardiovascular events safety analyses of Roxadustat, together with other statistical analyses, will form part of the regulatory submission in the US, which is anticipated in the final quarter of 2019, AstraZeneca said.
Analysts at Liberum told clients these results should be enough for regulatory approval, with the drug becoming “yet another blockbuster drug” for the FTSE 100 group, indicating at least US$1bn in annual revenue for the company.
Broker Shore Capital previously said Roxadustat has the potential to add up to $5billion to AstraZeneca’s annual revenue.
Despite the positive update, shares of AstraZeneca slipped 0.3% to 7,255p. 11/11/19 12:13BST.
