Celltech Disappointment Drives Down UK Biotech

The UK biotechnology industry, which has been riding high after a record performance in 1995, suffered a blow on February 1 with the announcement by Celltech that it was to drop an orally-active asthma compound, CDP 840, which it was developing with US partner Merck & Co.

The two companies had completed a series of Phase IIa studies of CDP 840, a phosphodiesterase type IV inhibitor, in patients with mild-to-moderate asthma. The results from three such studies, conducted in 54 patients, were reported at the end of last year and revealed that administration of CDP 840 for 10 days was able to achieve a statistically-significant reduction in the late-phase allergic response, indicating that the drug may be a new class of anti-inflammatory to complement steroids and cromoglycate in the asthma sector. However, a subsequent analysis of the clinical benefits of the drug, in a group of 31 patients who received twice the dose of drug for a further 10 days, was less encouraging.

Celltech reports that the treatment effects did not reach the predetermined levels of efficacy which the firm and Merck believed were necessary to represent a significant therapeutic advance. CDP 840 was well-tolerated, however, which is an encouraging finding as many drugs of this type have been associated with nausea problems. The anti-inflammatory data have been submitted for presentation at the American Thoracic Society meeting to be held in New Orleans in May.