High cho­les­terol con­tender Es­pe­ri­on slips on safe­ty con­cerns, stock sinks 30%

Es­pe­ri­on’s stock is slid­ing south Wednes­day morn­ing fol­low­ing news that the com­pa­ny’s high cho­les­terol drug may have some safe­ty con­cerns.

Over­all, the com­pa­ny re­port­ed pos­i­tive re­sults from its Phase III tri­al of the drug, called be­mpe­doic acid. The ther­a­py met its pri­ma­ry end­point on safe­ty while low­er­ing pa­tients’ bad cho­les­terol by 20% over 12 weeks. But that wasn’t enough to ap­pease in­vestors, as the safe­ty da­ta raised a few eye­brows.

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