Por­to­la slammed by a sur­pris­ing FDA re­jec­tion for its an­ti-an­ti­co­ag­u­lant

Por­to­la Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals wait­ed un­til late Wednes­day to spread the word that the FDA has re­ject­ed its mar­ket­ing ap­pli­ca­tion for its an­ti-an­ti­co­ag­u­lant an­dex­anet al­fa, a sur­pris­ing set­back for a com­pa­ny that had been con­fi­dent­ly as­sur­ing an­a­lysts of its like­ly suc­cess.

Their an­ti­dote–which earned the FDA’s break­through ther­a­py des­ig­na­tion–is a mol­e­cule that is de­signed to quick­ly dis­arm Fac­tor Xa an­ti­co­ag­u­lants like Eliquis and Xarel­to, block­ing their ac­tiv­i­ty when need­ed to pre­vent ex­ces­sive bleed­ing. Por­to­la $PT­LA got a big bounce in late 2014 when it an­nounced that the first leg of the Phase III was a suc­cess. And they fol­lowed up in the spring of 2015 with a con­fir­ma­to­ry leg of the Phase III pro­gram that re­as­sured an­a­lysts that the South San Fran­cis­co-based com­pa­ny was on the right track.

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