LONDON: Neurocrine Biosciences said on Thursday it will halt development of its experimental drug, which aims to improve cognitive function in schizophrenia patients, after it failed to achieve a primary goal in a mid-stage trial.
The drug, luvadoxistat, could not replicate the results of an earlier mid-stage trial that showed better cognitive performance, due to large variability in cognitive measures among patients and potential imbalances in their baseline characteristics, the company said.
In a previous study, luvadoxistat failed to meet the primary goal of change from baseline in negative symptoms of schizophrenia, however, it met the secondary goal of improving cognitive functioning.
Neurocrine said it will focus its resources on late-stage development of its other schizophrenia and depression drug candidates.
Shares of the company were down 2.5 percent in extended trading.
Last month, the company said its other schizophrenia drug, NBI-1117568, helped reduce symptom severity in a mid-stage trial, but there were concerns whether the benefit could be replicated in larger trials.
(Reporting by Puyan Singh; Editing by Mohammad Safi Shamsi and Shinjini Ganguly)
