Irvine-based drug maker Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday that it would stop work on a drug for treating benign enlarged prostates.
Spectrum said it expects to save up to $40 million by dropping further clinical work on ozarelix, Chief Executive Rajesh Shrotriya said in a statement.
The company said that mixed results of an earlier second-phase study, along with the recently announced failure of a similar drug being developed by Canada’s Aeterna Zentaris Inc., didn’t support continued development of ozarelix.
Spectrum received a license from Aeterna Zentaris to develop and market ozarelix in 2004.
The company makes drugs for bone cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
Spectrum has yearly sales of about $30 million.
The company is seeking to get approval to expand the usage of its bone cancer drug Fusilev to treat colon cancer.
