Costa Mesa drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said Tuesday its much-touted hepatitis C drug, Viramidine, failed to meet effectiveness goals in a second late-stage clinical trial.
Back in March, the drug maker said a late-stage trial for Viramidine proved it to be no more effective than the standard treatment for hepatitis C, sending Valeant’s shares down more than 10% on the news.
The disappointing results are a blow to Valeant, which had pinned high hopes on the drug as a replacement for its fading flagship ribavirin, the bellwether treatment for hepatitis C.
Wall Street brushed off the news, likely already conditioned by the earlier Viramidine results. Valeant’s stock was up slightly in mid-morning New York Stock Exchange trading.
The drug maker said in a release that Viramidine was safer than standard treatments for the liver disease, but not as effective.
Valeant said it was going to start a mid-stage, higher-dosage trial of Viramidine, and based on that study’s results, decide on whether to pursue a third late-stage trail.
The announcement comes a day after Valeant said the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the drug maker’s stock sales, option grants, as well as the release of earlier disappointing trial data for Viramidine.
The SEC also wants to know about Valeant’s efforts to reclaim a $33 million bonus awarded four years ago to founder and former chief executive Milan Panic.
Valeant said in August that it had settled a lawsuit over the issue with Panic. But the company said it’s had to go back to court to try and get “timely payment” and what it called breaches of other settlement conditions.
Panic’s waging his own fight against Valeant. He’s filed a suit alleging directors intentionally drove down the company’s shares with false claims about performance. That allowed them to profit off stock options granted at low prices, the suit charges.
Panic has also threatened to take his charges to the SEC.
