(Reuters) -PTC Therapeutics said on Tuesday it is discontinuing the development of its drug for a type of fatal neurodegenerative disease, as it failed to slow disease progression in a mid-stage trial.
This marks the latest setback in a long list of roadblocks on the path to developing effective treatments against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that affects 16,000 to 32,000 people in the United States and almost completely paralyzed late British physicist Stephen Hawking.
PTC Therapeutics’ drug, utreloxastat, was tested in patients with ALS, a rare neurological disease that can break down nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for muscle movements.
The company said the oral drug also failed to meet statistical significance in the trial’s secondary goals.
Japanese firm Mitsubishi Tanabe’s Radicava, generic drug Riluzole, and Biogen’s Qalsody are some of the FDA approved ALS treatments available in the U.S.
Shares of New Jersey-based PTC Therapeutics fell 2.6% to $44.80 after the bell.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
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