Roche, Ab­b­Vie forced to slam brakes on myelo­ma stud­ies of star drug Ven­clex­ta af­ter re­searchers flag high­er risk of death

Two heavy­weight phar­ma play­ers to­day said they’ve been forced to stop re­cruit­ing pa­tients for all on­go­ing stud­ies in­volv­ing Ven­clex­ta (vene­to­clax) for mul­ti­ple myelo­ma. Roche and Ab­b­Vie say the drug arm has been linked to a high­er rate of death than the con­trol group, prompt­ing the FDA to is­sue a par­tial hold or­der­ing them to sus­pend any new pa­tient re­cruit­ment for the blood can­cer tri­als un­til they can sort out what is hap­pen­ing.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER