So­ri­ot’s $3.5B Bril­in­ta dream is dashed by yet an­oth­er big tri­al flop for As­traZeneca

Four years ago, when Pas­cal So­ri­ot stepped to the helm of the fal­ter­ing As­traZeneca, he based his turn­around plan on a vow that the phar­ma gi­ant could trans­form Bril­in­ta in­to a block­buster fran­chise, even­tu­al­ly promis­ing in­vestors $3.5 bil­lion in an­nu­al rev­enue.

Now, af­ter its sec­ond con­sec­u­tive set­back in the clin­ic this year, So­ri­ot is fi­nal­ly back­ing off that num­ber.

This time, the drug failed to demon­strate a ben­e­fit over gener­ic Plav­ix (clopi­do­grel) for pe­riph­er­al artery dis­ease. Back in March, the heart drug flopped in a large stroke study, un­able to prove that it could beat as­pirin. And So­ri­ot can chalk up those ex­pen­sive stud­ies to prov­ing Bril­in­ta’s se­ri­ous de­fi­cien­cies.

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