Mallinck­rodt forced to shut­ter ALS study test­ing its con­tro­ver­sial Ac­thar gel

Mallinck­rodt, the cur­rent mak­er of Ac­thar — a drug first de­vel­oped in the 1950s  — said on Tues­day said it was aban­don­ing its quest to mar­ket the gel in pa­tients with Lou Gehrig’s dis­ease.

The com­pa­ny was test­ing the drug in a Phase II study de­signed to en­roll 213 pa­tients — when an in­de­pen­dent da­ta and safe­ty mon­i­tor­ing board rec­om­mend­ed ax­ing the tri­al due to the lack of an ef­fi­ca­cy sig­nal, and pneu­mo­nia oc­cur­ring at a high­er rate in Ac­thar-treat­ed pa­tients.

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