Roche gets hit with an­oth­er big R&D set­back as a prospec­tive AMD block­buster flops in PhI­II

At one point Genen­tech’s eye drug lam­pal­izum­ab was a com­fort to Roche CEO Sev­erin Schwan as he con­tem­plat­ed the loss of patent pro­tec­tion on the Swiss phar­ma gi­ant’s three big fran­chise drugs. To­day, as gener­ic com­pe­ti­tion gets se­ri­ous, it’s an­oth­er cau­tion­ary tale about the high-risk world of drug de­vel­op­ment.

Roche said on Fri­day that lam­pal­izum­ab flopped in its first of two late-stage stud­ies, like­ly de­liv­er­ing a killer blow to a drug that once fig­ured as a po­ten­tial megablock­buster that Deutsche Bank an­a­lysts es­ti­mat­ed could bring in $6 bil­lion a year.

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