Hopes were raised when the companies decided to start a late-stage trial of the drug, but data from mid-stage trials is not yet available, so it's difficult to know whether that bet will pay off.
This follows murky mid-stage results from another type of amyloid blocking drug from Pfizer and Elan.
As a mid-stage company, there will be a tendency to add in more specialists.
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So far, Sangamo has a drug in mid-stage clinical trials for two different ailments.
Results of a larger mid-stage clinical trial are due in the second half of 2008.
However, he said, the new data should cool hopes that the drug could be approved in this mid-stage.
Bristol-Myers (nyse: BMY - news - people ) has a DPP-4 inhibitor in mid-stage trials.
Its new drug, an inhibitor of the enzyme cathepsin K, showed promising results in a mid-stage trial earlier this year.
It is in a mid-stage trial that could serve as the basis of an FDA approval if it is successful.
Now, a mid-stage trial might be enrolled by the end of this year and finished by the middle of next.
Merck is thought to have a similar molecule in mid-stage studies and may unveil results at an analyst meeting next month.
More bad news: Mid-stage trials of a new drug for hepatitis C being developed by Wyeth and biotech Viropharma were stopped.
It is in mid-stage clinical trials, and is being co-developed by Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ).
Roche has now run a second set of mid-stage trials on JTT-705.
Additionally, mid-stage trials in MDS and particularly in 5q- syndrome are continuing.
But results from mid-stage studies often look more positive than those that result when larger studies are done for the purpose of approval.
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But there appears to be only one new cholesterol-lowering pill in mid-stage development, and its a drug that Pfizer ate up and spit out.
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The reason for this criticism was that the mid-stage clinical trials with bapi gave equivocal results and plunging into phase 3 was highly risky.
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When the mid-stage clinical results (phase 2) with bapi were disclosed by Wyeth (this occurred before the Pfizer acquisition), the efficacy signal was mixed.
The results of a mid-stage clinical trial were recently reported, and Genzyme plans to continue looking for a partner that could get the drug approved.
Mid-stage trials were so muddy that they are difficult to read, and AstraZeneca has held back much of its investment until final results come in.
Bristol is testing it in combination with two other experimental drugs code-named BMS-790052 and BMS-650032 that are in mid-stage trials, and also two earlier-stage compounds.
First, the company quietly said it was temporarily stopping mid-stage trials of the Alzheimer's treatment, a therapeutic vaccine dubbed AN-1792, because four patients had become sick.
Merck also announced it had canceled a mid-stage study of its migraine drug telcagepant, viewed as promising, because of elevated levels of liver enzymes in study participants.
Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) is thought to have a similar molecule in mid-stage studies and may unveil results at an analyst meeting next month.
More bad news: Mid-stage trials of a new drug for hepatitis C being developed by Wyeth and biotech Viropharma (nasdaq: VPHM - news - people ) were stopped.
Novartis ' (nyse: NVS - news - people ) Gleevec, the first targeted cancer therapy, was approved after mid-stage trials in which it helped patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Late last week, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: MLNM - news - people ) disclosed in a regulatory filing that MLN-02, a treatment for Crohn's disease, was effective in a mid-stage clinical trial.
In a mid-stage study, 13 of 15 patients who received Soliris did not require further treatment for aHUS. Based on some back-of-the-envelope math based on the incidence of aHUS in France and Italy, Sanford C.
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