Tech & Biz

Avastin Beats AstraZeneca Colon Cancer Drug Recentin: Shares Fall

by Paul Conneally | March 8, 2010 at 09:08 am

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Trials of AstraZeneca's new cancer drug recentin did not outperform avastin made by rival Roche in colorectal patients. On release of the results shares in Astra fell by 41.5p to £29.54.

This news adds fuel to worries within Astra about growth started last week when they announced that their flagship R&D centre in Loughborough UK was to close next year with a loss of 1,200 high-end jobs.

This news is seen as potentially disastrous for the small town of Loughborough's economy as most of the redundant workers are highly paid and will probably have to leave the town to find similar work.

Market experts feel that with the planned cutbacks in staff and the plant in Loughborough and around the world, Astra shares should weather the storm, particularly if planned new trials prove more effective.

Pharmaceutical companies can spend many years and millions of dollars on developing new drugs, which if they fail in the later stages, puts huge pressure on profits.

AstraZeneca have gambled on the success of recentin and should the second set of trials fail, investors can expect even more share and job losses.

As the market edges higher, AstraZeneca is heading in the other direction following disappointing results for its cancer drug recentin.

For people in the Leicestershire market town of Loughborough, news that one of its largest employers is to close has left them in a state of shock.Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca announced on Tuesday its plant in the town would close by the end of 2011, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs.

Loughborough's other big employer is Loughborough University which will host the Japanese Olympic Team for the London 2012 Olympics.

Avastin in colorectal cancer patients, hurting the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker's shares on Monday. The company said the data, which analysts had expected to be negative for Recentin, showed the experimental drug did not meet its primary endpoint in the Horizon phase III study. But it said it would wait for fresh data from a second late stage trial before making any decisions on filing the drug for approval.