GSK shares fall as cough drug development axed

(Sharecast News) - Shares in GSK fell sharply on Friday after the pharma titan announced it was stopping the development of a refractory chronic cough drug after unsuccessful results late-stage clinical trial. Refractory chronic cough or RCC is a persistent cough lasting more than eight weeks, and is known as an under-recognised disease with limited treatment options.

GSK's Camlipixant treatment, a P2X3 receptor antagonist, was evaluated in adults with RCC in the CALM-1 and CALM-2 phase III clinical trials.

While CALM-1 met its primary endpoint, showing statistically significant reductions in 24-hour cough frequency when taking 50mg of camplixant twice daily versus the placebo after 12 weeks, the 24-week CALM-2 study did not. Meanwhile, the 25mg dose of camplixant twice daily didn't show any statistical significance in either study, GSK said.

Overall incidence rates and severity of treatment-related adverse events were seen to be similar to the placebo in both trials.

"Based on the aggregate data, the limited efficacy demonstrated is unlikely to transform patient care. GSK has decided not to progress further development of camlipixant in RCC," GSK said in a statement.

"Results from the CALM phase III programme will be submitted for future presentation/publication to contribute to the scientific understanding of RCC."

The stock was down 3.8% at 1,882p by 1225 BST.

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