Shares of Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ: VIR) were down more than 44% as of 10:45 a.m. on Thursday after the company announced phase 2 trial results for an influenza A therapy candidate. The stock is down more than 49% so far this year.

Vir focuses on immunology therapies to treat infectious diseases. Its only marketed product, Sotrovimab, is an early treatment for COVID-19 that it collaborated with GSK on, but sales of that therapy have been declining.

In a release before the markets opened on Thursday, Vir said that VIR-2482 failed to meet primary or secondary efficacy endpoints as a therapy to treat influenza A illness in a phase 2 trial. The therapy was given to roughly 3,000 participants and the company said among those who received the highest dose of VIR-2482 (1,200 milligrams), a non-statistically significant reduction of approximately 16% in influenza A illness was found.

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Source Fool.com