Pfizer shares were down on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, following the announcement of the failure of the Phase III clinical trial of its experimental treatment for Duchenne disease.

At around 10:40 a.m., the stock was down 1.4%, while the S&P 500 index was down 0.1% at the same time.

The US laboratory reported that its fordadistrogene gene therapy movaparvovec had failed to meet its primary objective of improving motor function in children aged four to seven suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

The secondary endpoints, i.e. the ability to walk ten meters and to stand up, were also not met.

'This latest failure in this indication underlines just how difficult DMD is to treat, despite the gene therapy approaches which, in theory, offer the most hope for this type of genetically-based pathology', say analysts at Invest Securities.

Duchenne disease - a form of muscular dystrophy - almost always appears in boys, as a result of gene dysfunction leading to impaired muscle function during childhood or adolescence.

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