Allergan, Richter steer past another late-stage pileup with cariprazine
Cariprazine’s hit-and-miss record in late-stage development has been extended by a stinging setback. Investigators for Allergan ($AGN) and its partner Gedeon Richter say that the drug flopped in a Phase III depression study, but will nevertheless go back into another pivotal study in search of more promising results.
Persistence in late-stage work is the only reason this drug is still in the spotlight. Back in early 2015 I covered their small, successful Phase III trial for cariprazine in schizophrenia, which was good enough for the developers to send back to the FDA for a later approval (as Vraylar), even though they had rejected the drug in 2013. Richter has doggedly maintained its faith in the drug after once projecting peak potential sales at a blockbuster rate of $2 billion a year, which shrinks to $200 million in the hands of some analysts.
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