Deb­o­rah Dun­sire kicks off her new gig as Lund­beck CEO with a key PhI­II tri­al fail­ure

You have to feel al­most sor­ry for Deb­o­rah Dun­sire.

No soon­er does the Mil­len­ni­um vet take the helm of Lund­beck af­ter back-to-back biotechs col­lapse on her watch than the com­pa­ny’s schiz­o­phre­nia drug can­di­date fails a Phase III study, tor­pe­do­ing the stock as shares plunge 30%.

Lu AF35700 failed to mea­sure up against con­ven­tion­al ther­a­py in its first Phase III study, like­ly elim­i­nat­ing any po­ten­tial up­side as far as reg­u­la­tors might be con­cerned. In­ves­ti­ga­tors test­ed the drug on 964 treat­ment-re­sis­tant pa­tients treat­ed over 10 weeks.

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