NEW YORK (AP) – AstraZeneca PLC and Targacept Inc. said that their experimental depression drug TC-5214 failed in a second late-stage clinical trial.

TC-5214 is Targacept’s lead drug candidate. AstraZeneca and Targacept are testing TC-5214 as an adjunct treatment, or a drug designed to make other medications more effective. They said patients in the trial took one of several approved depression drugs in combination with either TC-5214 or a placebo for eight weeks. Patients who took a depression drug and TC-5214 had similar improvement to patients who took the depression drug and the placebo.

The two companies are running two other late-stage trials of TC-5214 and they expect to report results from those studies in the first half of 2012. The companies had said they could file for U.S. marketing approval in late 2012, and file for European Union approval in 2015.

AstraZeneca said that it is abandoning plans to develop a new anti-ovarian cancer drug, and it will take a pre-tax charge of $285 million for the failure of olaparib.

The company will take a $96.5 million pre-tax charge for TC-5214.

Date: December 20, 2011
Source: Associated Press