A second clinical trial of Gilead Sciences Inc.'s experimental drug against COVID-19 was suspended, authorities disclosed late Wednesday, weeks before the company's own trials are projected to produce data.
The sponsor, Capital Medical University in Beijing and its partner, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, shut down the late-stage, random test that was set for 308 subjects with mild to moderate COVID-19.
Earlier this month, Capital Medical University ended a random 237-patient test in serious patients who have been infected with the disease.
Gilead shares were down 3 percent at $75.27 Earlier, another study in China testing the experimental vaccine remdesivir in subjects with serious COVID-19 was halted because no eligible patients could be taken in.
China, where it is suspected the outbreak first broke out, was able to contain the diseases through rigid actions that included early lockdowns.
There are no approved treatments currently available for COVID-19, the extremely infectious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has infected more than 2 million people around the globe.
Evercore ISI strategist Umer Raffat notified investors in a note that the huge volume of tests carried out in the country to come up with a treatment for the virus may have made it hard to gather enough subjects.
Nevertheless, Raffat also stated that we can not ignore the fact that if the experimental drug had convincing effectiveness, "trials may have enrolled."
The illness, in which the lungs are blocked from over-reaction by the body's immune system, has claimed the lives of 133,354, including 27,850 in the United States.
Analysts have also been worried that the drug maker, run by Chairman and chief executive officer Dan O'Day, could encounter trouble with numbers in two of its own tests.
Last week, Gilead increased the size of its research of patients with severe illness, from 400 to 2,400, and its analysis of patients with moderate symptoms, from 600 to 1,600.
The pharmaceutical firm did not immediately reply to Reuters' request to comment on the trial shut down. Data released last week indicated that after treatment with remdesivir, more than two-thirds of critically ill COVID-19 patients have seen their condition get better.
The study was focused on patient evaluation and the research authors had emphasized it was not easy to translate as it did not include any comparisons with a control group.
In all, there are seven trials remaining that will use remdesivir, the Clinicaltrials.gov showed, and this includes the two Gilead-supported tests that could produce data around early May.
