Gilead scraps late-stage trial of blood cancer treatment

[July 22, 2023]  By Sriparna Roy

(Reuters) -Gilead Sciences Inc said on Friday it was stopping a late-stage trial of its blood cancer combination treatment following an analysis that showed it would not be effective.

The company was studying antibody magrolimab in combination with a type of chemotherapy called azacitidine for the treatment of patients with a higher risk of Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a rare group of bone marrow failure disorders.

Gilead, whose shares dropped over 1% in after-market trading, recommended that treatment with magrolimab in patients with MDS should be stopped.

The company gained access to magrolimab with its $4.9 billion buyout of Forty Seven Inc in March 2020.

While it is not a surprise that the drug is not a viable treatment for high-risk MDS given consistently poor data for past few years, scrapping the trial after an interim analysis is surprising, said Robert W. Baird analyst Brian Skorney.

A Gilead Sciences, Inc. office is shown in Foster City, California, U.S. May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo

Magrolimab is also in development for other types of cancer such as acute myeloid leukemia and solid tumours.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in BengaluruEditing by Vinay Dwivedi)

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