Gilead Sciences and Galapagos Shutter Their Pulmonary Fibrosis Program

A large part of a $5 billion bet that Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) made in 2019 has fallen apart in late clinical-stage development. The bottom fell out from under ziritaxestat, a new drug candidate Gilead Sciences was developing in partnership with Galapagos (NASDAQ: GLPG), when the partners announced all clinical trials with the experimental autotaxin inhibitor would be discontinued on Wednesday morning.

In a mid-stage idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) study, patients treated with ziritaxestat showed lung function improvements, while those given a placebo declined significantly. The candidate also produced compelling efficacy data in a mid-stage study with systemic sclerosis patients.

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Source Fool.com