Amicus to abandon wound treatment after it fails late-stage trial

[September 13, 2017] (Reuters) - U.S. drug developer Amicus Therapeutics Inc said on Wednesday it will not invest in any more clinical trials of its drug to heal wounds, after the experimental treatment failed to meet the main goals of a late-stage trial.

The company said its drug, when compared with a placebo, did not show a statistical significance in reducing the time taken for wounds to close in patients with epidermolysis bullosa, a skin disease that causes blisters.

The number of patients whose wounds had closed after taking Amicus's drug, SD-101, was not different from the number of patients on a placebo whose wounds had closed, the company said.

Epidermolysis bullosa is a rare genetic disorder that causes severe skin blistering and open wounds that often begin at birth. It currently has no approved treatment.

Amicus has a treatment for Pompe disease, a rare, inherited disorder, and Fabry disease, another genetic disorder, in its pipeline.

Shares of Cranbury, New Jersey-based Amicus were down about 15 percent at $11.28 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar

[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.