GSK hands back failed muscular dystrophy drug to Prosensa

[January 13, 2014]   LONDON (Reuters) —  GlaxoSmithKline has handed back rights to an experimental drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy to Dutch biotech firm Prosensa after it failed last year in a critical clinical trial.

Britain's biggest drugmaker said on Monday that Prosensa would now have full and unencumbered rights to drisapersen. The move marks the termination of a 2009 collaboration agreement between the two firms.

Hopes for the drug slumped last September when it did not show a statistically significant improvement in the distance that patients could walk in six minutes compared with a placebo in a final-stage Phase III test run by GSK.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Greg Mahlich)

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